DIVE vs VUS

DIVEDDana Concentrated Dividend ETF

VUSBVirtus U.S. Dividend ETF

In short

DIVE Most dividend funds spread their bets over hundreds of names. DIVE goes the other way: an actively picked book of roughly 25 to 35 dividend payers, chasing growth and income at once. It launched in September 2025, so the track record starts here.

VUS An AI-assisted dividend fund at a passive-fund price. A quant model reads sentiment and valuation, humans make the final call, and it charges 0.25%, less than half the typical active US dividend ETF.

Stated mandate

DIVE The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation and income through an actively managed portfolio of approximately 25 to 35 primarily dividend-paying equity securities.

VUS The Fund seeks current income and, secondarily, long-term capital appreciation.

Why people hold it

• DIVE Real concentration, by design: the prospectus targets roughly 25 to 35 primarily dividend-paying stocks, so a single good pick still moves the needle.
• The mandate is two-sided, long-term capital appreciation plus income, not a yield chase with the growth engine bolted shut.
• The manager can shop outside the US as well as at home, so a dividend payer in Europe or Asia is fair game.
• Simple plumbing: a standard 1940 Act ETF holding stocks. No derivatives overlay, no K-1 at tax time.

• VUS 0.25% a year, under half the 0.55% median for active US dividend ETFs and cheaper than every top-graded name in the cohort (CGDV, HIDV, MBOX, BGIG, TDVG).
• The engine: a proprietary alpha model using AI-powered language processing for sentiment plus valuation factors. Virtus portfolio managers make the final trading calls.sec.gov
• About 90 US-listed dividend payers, with at least 80% of net assets in them. Focused enough for picks to register, wide enough to spread single-name risk.sec.gov

Worth knowing

• DIVE At 0.65%, the fee sits above the 0.55% median for active dividend funds and well above cheaper rivals like CGDV (0.33%) and HIDV (0.35%).
• A 2025 launch with no multi-year record, and on the measures we track it currently sits in the lower reaches of a crowded peer group.
• Small asset base and thin trading, which usually means wider bid-ask spreads than the category's household names.

• VUS Launched December 2025 with a small asset base and light volume, so spreads can run wider than the cohort's household names and live history on the model is short.
• The prospectus lets the fund put more than 15% of assets in a single sector, so the portfolio can lean hard into a few corners of the market.sec.gov
• Income arrives annually or semiannually rather than monthly, so the cash shows up in lumps.

Full DIVE profile⁠

Full VUS profile⁠