DTD vs SCHD

DTDAWisdomTree U.S. Total Dividend Fund

SCHDASchwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF

In short

DTD A 2006 original that skips the usual filters: no high-yield hunt, no dividend-growth streak test. DTD holds roughly 800 US dividend payers, from mega caps down to small, and reshuffles once a year.

SCHD The dividend fund that checks the balance sheet before it checks the yield. SCHD only considers companies with 10 straight years of payouts, then ranks the survivors on cash flow, return on equity and dividend growth. Quality gate first, income second, at six basis points.

Stated mandate

DTD The Fund uses a passive indexing approach intended to track the price and yield performance of the WisdomTree U.S. Total Dividend Index before fees and expenses.

SCHD The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100TM Index.

Why people hold it

• DTD Owns the broad dividend-paying US market in one ticket, roughly 800 names across the cap range, not a narrow high-yield slice.wisdomtree.comsec.gov
• Charges 0.28% a year, under the typical US dividend-screen fund, and sits in the upper tier of that large peer group.
• Pays monthly and has been running since 2006, through several full market cycles, tracking its index closely.

• SCHD Charges 0.06% a year, near the floor for US equity ETFs and a fraction of what the typical dividend-screen fund costs.schwabassetmanagement.com
• The rulebook is strict: 10 consecutive years of dividends to qualify, then a composite rank on cash-flow-to-total-debt, return on equity, yield and five-year dividend growth.spglobal.com
• Index rules cap any single stock at 4.5% and any sector at 25%, so one hot name cannot quietly become the whole income stream.spglobal.com
• Running since 2011 and now among the largest, most heavily traded dividend ETFs, with tracking that stays very close to its index.

Worth knowing

• DTD Thinly traded next to category giants like SCHD and VIG, so spreads can run wider, which bites most on large or rushed orders.
• Cheap for the category, but SCHD, VIG and DGRO each charge a fraction of 0.28%.
• The index adds names only at its annual December rebalance, so the lineup can trail changes in who pays what.sec.govsec.gov 2

• SCHD Roughly 100 names, every one a long-time dividend payer. The fast-growing non-payers that drive much of the US market are not eligible, by design.spglobal.com
• The yield and quality screens tilt it toward mature, cash-generating sectors, so it looks nothing like a total-market fund. Distributions land quarterly, not monthly.spglobal.com
• Not the absolute cheapest shelf item: VIG runs 0.04% and DIVB 0.05%, though both screen for dividends differently.

Full DTD profile⁠

Full SCHD profile⁠