DINE vs HIPS

DINECSimplify Tax Aware Diversified Income Strategy ETF

HIPSDGraniteShares HIPS US High Income ETF

In short

DINE Most income funds hand you ordinary income and a tax bill. DINE routes bond, options, equity and currency income sleeves through year-plus swaps so gains can qualify as long-term capital gains. 0.15% net of a waiver through April 5, 2027.

HIPS HIPS shops in a corner most index funds skip: a roughly 40-name basket of US pass-through securities, screened for lower volatility, paying out monthly. Income mandate first, cheap beta second.

Stated mandate

DINE DINE seeks capital appreciation through a diversified portfolio of income-based strategies, including fixed income, option-based, equity-income, and currency-income approaches, with tax-management techniques intended to reduce tax impact.

HIPS The fund passively seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the EQM High Income Pass-Through Securities Index, using replication or representative sampling of its components.

Why people hold it

• DINE Cheapest headline fee among the category's leaders: 0.15% net of a waiver through April 5, 2027 (0.25% gross), against 0.38% for INCM and 0.50% for IYLD, INKM and ALTY.simplify.us
• Instead of holding positions directly, it takes exposure via swaps on Simplify ETFs with tenors of at least one year, so gains at expiration can be eligible for long-term capital gains treatment.simplify.us
• Four income engines in one line item: enhanced core fixed income, option-based income, equity income and foreign currency income, actively run by Simplify.simplify.us

• HIPS One ticket to the pass-through corner of the US market: it tracks the EQM High Income Pass-Through Securities Index instead of a plain-vanilla stock benchmark.graniteshares.com
• Distributions land monthly, which matches how income spenders actually budget.
• Rules first: passive replication or sampling of the index, with a volatility screen written into the methodology rather than left to a manager's discretion.graniteshares.com
• Live since 2015, so this is a seasoned niche product with a decade-plus track record, not a fresh launch chasing a theme.

Worth knowing

• DINE Launched in 2026, it is a small, thinly traded fund, so spreads can be wider than the category's long-running names and there is little history to judge.
• Swaps instead of direct holdings means counterparty and derivatives risk, and the tax design leans on holding those swaps to expiration under current tax rules.simplify.us
• The stated goal is capital appreciation and payouts come annually or semiannually, not monthly, so this is not a steady-paycheck vehicle.

• HIPS Cost is the headline trade-off: 1.17% a year against a 0.45% median for index trackers in its peer group, one of the steepest fees among them.
• Concentrated by design: about 40 yield-heavy names, so a single holding or sector stumble carries far more weight than in a broad market fund.
• Smaller and only moderately traded next to mainstream index funds, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads at the moment you place an order.

Full DINE profile⁠

Full HIPS profile⁠