SSgA MSCI EAFE Index Strategy Fund in 401k

In a 401K the SSgA fund may be (is) an institutional fund that is not publically traded and has no ticker symbol. This is annoying because you cannot access public data on fund performance, etc. Nevertheless, such funds may be very good in your 401K. There is a SSgA International Index Fund in my 401K with ER of only .11%. The 401K administrator provides a Morningstar rating and analysis sheet on line with performance history, fund description, portfolio listing etc.

What is happending here is that either your employer is not ensuring that your 401K administrator is communicating effectively about your funds or that you have missed the information. At the very least you must have a Summary Plan Description and an Annual Report. I would suggest calling the 401K administrator or your company benefits department and asking for full descriptions of the funds in your 401K.

you can track the index using bloomberg: symbol mxea

EFA is the ticker for an exchange traded fund that tracks the MSCI EAFE Index.

Beware that some mutual funds that track the EAFE Index use a "fair valuation" technique to prevent market timers from taking advantage of the time difference between U.S. markets and those in the Far East. If your fund uses the fair valuation technique there may be some days when EFA and your fund show different returns. The difference works itself out in the long run.

Just my two cents worth, but investing five percent in the EAFE Index seems low to me. Most gurus advise having 20 percent of your equity money in international stocks. So if you have the standard 60/40 split between stocks and bonds you should have about 12 percent in international equities.

Paul Michael Brown Washington, D.C.

Hi Paul, Paul Michael Brown schrieb:

I heard about this time difference problem (like if you are invested in NIKKEI)

I guess there is not too much you can do about that. As long as that is the biggest problem, I could take that.

CU John