Editors' Index Fund Picks - International and Emerging Markets Equity
By IndexFunds Staff

The lists below single out some of favorite index funds covering the international and emerging markets equity asset classes. Many of the funds are based on MSCI's international EAFE index.

The table below lists a few quality international growth and value funds.

Here's a few broad index funds covering international regions.

Emerging markets index funds carry plenty of risk but tend not to correlate with the domestic stock market. Emerging markets indexes have performed poorly relative to domestic benchmarks through much of the past decade.

For each asset class there are several popular indexes to choose from. Our goal is to identify the funds that track those indexes efficiently and cheaply. None of the funds on our list charge front or deferred loads, or 12b-1 fees. We listed some funds with fairly high fees because investors who choose to work with broker or advisors understand this may be part of how they earn their fees. In the case of both ETFs and funds only available through advisors (such as the Dimensional Fund Advisor or DFA funds) there are additional transaction or holding costs.

Our list is by no means complete, but we think it's a good starting point. We're very interested in comments you might have. We're willing to consider even higher-cost funds for our list, but we need to be convinced. Please post comments to our bulletin boards.

For all lists, the funds are in no particular order and not listed by preference.

Of course, an asset allocation plan is more than just finding good building blocks. They must fit together. But we think this is a good start.