Even the Canadians are noticing a good story out of Texas. Rob Carrick, reporting for Montreal's Globe and Mail, catches all of the basics of the story: the "father of modern finance" Eugene Fama, is on the board, the funds are only sold through advisors, it does little marketing and lets its results sell.

The fund family in the paper's spotlight is, of course, Austin, Texas-based Dimensional Fund Advisors [profile].

"They're almost anti-marketers," consultant Dan Richards tells the paper. "There are only a few firms like that — Vanguard would be an another example."

DFA now claims $239 billion of AUM across all of its product. The "160 or so" advisors in Canada account for just $4.5 billion of that amount. The Canadian operations are based in Vancouver.

The paper tells Canadian investors that the mutual fund firm is "rooted in academic research," with a bent towards focusing on smaller companies and value stocks.

DFA's Canadian head Brad Steiman tells the paper that “We’re obsessed with costs and this is one area we keep an eye on." He adds that "We don't advertise, we don’t buy assets, we don't have an army of sales people knocking on doors."  

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