DON vs VIG

DONBWisdomTree U.S. MidCap Dividend Fund

VIGAVanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF

In short

DON Most dividend funds read like a mega-cap roll call. DON deletes the 300 largest payers first, then weights what's left by the dollars of dividends each company is projected to pay. Mid-cap income, run the same way since 2006.

VIG VIG buys dividend growth, not fat yields: about 300 US companies with a record of raising their payouts, tracked for 0.04% a year. Running since 2006 and now north of $100 billion, it is the plain-vanilla anchor of the dividend-screen aisle.

Stated mandate

DON The Fund seeks to track the price and yield performance of dividend-paying mid-capitalization companies in the U.S. equity market. It uses passive indexing and generally invests in Index constituents or economically similar investments.

VIG The fund seeks to track the S&P U.S. Dividend Growers Index, which represents common stocks of companies with a record of increasing dividends over time.

Why people hold it

• DON The index removes the 300 largest U.S. dividend payers before building, so DON holds mid-cap names that mega-cap-heavy dividend funds mostly skip.wisdomtree.comsec.gov
• Weights come from projected cash dividends, not market cap, and any one sector is capped at 25% on the annual screening date.sec.gov
• Plain passive indexing: roughly 300 holdings, tracking that has stayed close to its index, and cash out the door monthly.
• Live since 2006 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund, so the strategy has a long paper trail rather than a launch-week backtest.

• VIG At 0.04% a year, the fee is roughly a tenth of the typical dividend-screen fund's 0.39%, and undercuts every other top-graded fund in the group, DGRO and SCHD included.
• The screen rewards a record of increasing dividends rather than the biggest current payout, so the basket leans on payout discipline instead of stretched yields.
• Live since 2006, over $100 billion in assets and actively traded, which shows up as easy fills rather than wide spreads.
• About 300 holdings, cash paid quarterly, and one of the strongest overall implementations in its dividend-screen peer group.

Worth knowing

• DON The 0.38% fee matches the median for dividend-screen funds but runs well above large-cap staples like VIG (0.04%) and SCHD (0.06%).
• Mid-cap payers tend to move more than mega-cap stalwarts, and risk is the softest part of this fund's profile inside its dividend peer group.
• The fund is classified as non-diversified, and sector weights can drift above that 25% cap between annual screenings.sec.gov

• VIG Growth of payouts, not maximum income, is the mandate. That puts it on a different axis than high-dividend funds such as SPYD.
• US stocks only, no bonds and no overseas payers, and sector weights are whatever the index screen spits out.
• Portfolio risk and concentration measures land mid-pack for the category: it is fully invested in equities and drops when the market drops.

Full DON profile⁠

Full VIG profile⁠