New I Fund Benchmark for 2024

The TSP board (Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board) voted to replace the existing I fund index with a new I fund index that includes more foreign countries.

The new index will be “MSCI ACWI IMI ex US ex China ex Hong Kong”. The old index was “MSCI Europe, Australasia and Far East (EAFE)”.

You can read FRTIB’s press release here:

https://www.frtib.gov/pdf/reading-room/PressRel/PR_2023-11-14_I-Fund-Benchmark-Change.pdf

And the MSCI index fact sheet here:

https://www.msci.com/documents/10199/7997f714-2b51-d7fb-dca2-ed9ff978d508

There does not appear to be a ticker symbol for the new index. If you find one, please let me know. We also don’t know when this change will take effect, with the press release only saying “in 2024”.

Because I have no historical data for this index, once the change does take effect, all TSPcalc strategies which use the I fund will then be based on irrelevant data of the old index. I have contacted MSCI sales to see if I can buy historical data. I will update here if this goes anywhere.

***Edit: Previously, I had said I probably wouldn’t be using the I fund in 2024. After some more thought I reversed that decision. The new I fund invests in a lot of the same countries as the existing I fund. And since I believe my strategy is trading a more general concept that there are certain time periods where foreign out performs domestic, I am optimistic my strategy will still work okay. We’ll see!

Thanks

Matt