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  • Starting in January 2021, we’re making the process easier for participants. If you’re turning 50 or older and are eligible for catch-up, you’ll no longer need to make separate catch-up elections to your TSP account. To learn how to make these contributions next year, visit Catch-up contributions.

C Fund

Common Stock Index Investment Fund

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First, let's answer a few questions.

  • Investment in the C Fund offers the opportunity to experience gains from equity ownership of large and mid-sized U.S. company stocks.

  • C Fund returns move up and down with the prices of the stocks in the S&P 500 Index (market risk) or if C Fund investments do not outpace or grow enough to offset the reduction in purchasing power (inflation risk).

  • The C Fund can be useful in a portfolio that also contains stock funds that track other indexes such as the S Fund and the I Fund. By investing in all segments of the stock market (as opposed to just one), you reduce your exposure to market risk. The C Fund can also be useful in a portfolio that contains bonds. A retirement portfolio that contains a bond fund like the F Fund, along with other stock funds, like the S and I Funds, will tend to be less volatile than one that contains stock funds alone.

The C Fund's investment objective is to match the performance of the Standard and Poor's 500 (S&P 500) Index, a broad market index made up of stocks of 500 large to medium-sized U.S. companies.

Performance

Average annual returns
2020 YTD 1 Yr 3 Yrs 5 Yrs 10 Yrs
- - - - -

  • Details As of 12/31/2019

    Assets
    $226.9 billion

    Net administrative expenses
    $0.420/$1,000 account balance 0.042% (4.2 basis points)

    Other expenses
    $0.010/$1,000 account balance 0.001% (0.1 basis points)

    Benchmark index
    S&P 500 Index | spglobal.com

    Asset manager
    BlackRock Institutional Trust
    Company, N.A.

    Inception date
    1/29/1988

    Top ten holdings As of 12/31/2019

    1. AAPL Apple, Inc.
    2. MSFT Microsoft Corporation
    3. AMZN Amazon.com, Inc.
    4. FB Facebook, Inc. Class A
    5. BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. Class B
    6. JPM JPMorgan Chase & Company
    7. GOOG Alphabet, Inc. Class A
    8. GOOGL Alphabet, Inc. Class C
    9. JNJ Johnson & Johnson
    10. V Visa, Inc. Class A

  • Portfolio Weight As of December 31, 2018

    Sector Portfolio Weight Portfolio Percentage
    Information Technology 23.2%
    Health Care 14.2%
    Financials 13.0%
    Communications Services 10.4%
    Consumer Discretionary 9.8%
    Industrials 9.1%
    Consumer Staples 7.2%
    Energy 4.4%
    Utilities 3.3%
    Real Estate 2.9%
    Materials 2.7%
    Total 1 100.2%
    1. Due to rounding, numbers may not add up to exactly 100%.

  • Fees As of 12/31/2019

    Net administrative expenses1
    $0.420/$1,000 account balance 0.042% (4.2 basis points)

    Other expenses2
    $0.010/$1,000 account balance 0.001% (0.1 basis points)

    1. An expense ratio of 0.042% translates to 4.2 basis points or $0.420 per $1,000 acount balance.
    2. Fees paid to the investment manager.

    Additional information

    By law, the C Fund must be invested in a portfolio designed to replicate the performance of an index of stocks representing the U.S. stock markets. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board has chosen as its benchmark the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index, which tracks the performance of major U.S. companies and industries.

    The S&P 500 Index is an index of 500 large to medium-sized U.S. companies that are traded in the U.S. stock markets. The index was designed by Standard & Poor’s Corporation (S&P) to provide a representative measure of U.S. stock markets’ performance. The companies in the index represent 157 industries classified into the 11 major sector groups shown in the chart. The stocks in the S&P 500 Index represent approximately 82% of the market value of the U.S. stock markets.

    The FRTIB’s Executive Director currently allocates the selection, purchase, investment, and management of assets contained in the C Fund to BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. The C Fund holds all the stocks included in the S&P 500 Index in virtually the same weights that they have in the index. The performance of the C Fund is evaluated on the basis of how closely its returns match those of the S&P 500 Index.