IEFA: iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF

What does IEFA hold?#

This fund owns thousands of large, medium and small companies in developed countries outside the US and Canada. Japan, the UK and much of Europe are big parts of it. Changes in foreign currency values can also move what it is worth in US dollars.

It tracks the MSCI EAFE IMI Index (Net). It had 2,626 holdings as of October 15, 2026, according to iShares (BlackRock).

What is the IEFA expense ratio?#

IEFA charges 0.07% a year. An expense ratio is the yearly fee a fund takes to run itself. On $10,000, a 0.07% fee comes to about $7 a year.

You never get a bill for it. The fund takes the fee out of its own value a little each day.

How has IEFA done since 2012?#

From October 2012 to October 2026, IEFA returned about 8.3% a year. Say you put in $10,000 at the start. It would have been worth about $30,322 at the end, with every dividend reinvested.

Prices through October 16, 2026. Figures use daily closing prices adjusted for splits, with dividends reinvested. They do not include taxes or the cost of buying and selling. Past results do not tell you what will happen next.

IEFA returns by year#

What was IEFA’s worst drop?#

A drawdown is how far a fund falls from its last high point. IEFA’s worst fall was −34.8%, from January 26, 2018 to March 23, 2020. It got back to that high on November 16, 2020.

The chart shows how far below its last high the fund was on each day. Big drops are normal for some funds. They matter because selling during a drop locks in the loss.

Which Tactfolio strategies hold IEFA?#

No classic strategy holds IEFA yet. You can add it to your own rules in the builder and see how they would have done.

How does IEFA compare with similar ETFs?#

Funds that can stand in for IEFA:

• SCHF: Schwab International Equity ETF, 0.03% a year
• VEA: Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF, 0.03% a year
• EFA: iShares MSCI EAFE ETF, 0.32% a year
• VEU: Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF, 0.04% a year

See all 8 IEFA alternatives, compared on the same dates as IEFA.

Test IEFA in your own rules#

Tactfolio is a platform where you build rules-based investing strategies, backtest them on decades of real prices, share them, and run them automatically in your own Alpaca account. Open the builder, add IEFA, and see how a rule such as “hold it only above its 200-day average” would have done. Strategies run on daily prices and hold US stocks and ETFs only.

The details#

Prices come from Tactfolio’s stored daily prices for IEFA. Each close is adjusted for splits, and dividends are reinvested on the day the fund pays them out. CAGR is the steady yearly return that turns the starting value into the ending value. Volatility is the yearly standard deviation of daily returns.

Fund facts come from iShares (BlackRock). We checked them on October 17, 2026. Read what a backtest simulates and how to read drawdown and CAGR for more on these measures.