DFA, on the other hand, has done a remarkable job positioning itself as a private club open only to advisors who understand and agree to rigorously abide by its approach. At the same time, DFA views itself as having an informal working partnership with the RIAs that bring assets to the firm. Moreover, it is keenly aware of its competition. Last year, it lowered the expenses on its U.S. Large Company Fund, which competes directly with Vanguard Index 500 for advisor assets. Whether a firm offers both actively and passively managed funds, or is a purely passive shop, one way that the firm can better market its index funds to RIAs is to provide sales materials that will help advisors educate their clients about the differences between actively and passively managed strategies.
Advisors typically have sufficient research materials that explain the academic case for indexing.
What they frequently do not have are brochures, fact sheets, etc. that they can use to get the concept of indexing across to clients. As far as delivering such information, most RIAs would prefer to access material via a fund company's web site, or through a direct link from a supermarket site.