DURA vs SCHD

DURACVanEck Durable High Dividend ETF

SCHDASchwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF

In short

DURA Most dividend screens stop at yield. DURA's Morningstar index adds financial-strength and valuation tests on top, hunting high payers that also look cheap rather than just high-yielding.

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

DURA The fund seeks to track the Morningstar US Dividend Valuation Index, which targets high-dividend-yielding U.S. companies selected for financial strength and attractive valuations.

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

• DURA The index screens high-yielding US stocks for financial strength and attractive valuation, a built-in check against chasing yield on its own.vaneck.com
• At 0.30% a year, it undercuts the 0.39% median fee for dividend-screen funds.
• Roughly 70 stocks and quarterly distributions: a compact income sleeve, not a broad-market proxy wearing a dividend label.
• Trading since 2018, so the quality-plus-value approach has a multi-year live record behind it, not just a backtest.

• 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

• DURA A small fund that trades thinly next to the category's giants, so spreads and fill quality can matter more than the expense ratio.
• Cheaper than the typical dividend screener, but the category's largest funds cost a fraction: VIG at 0.04%, SCHD at 0.06%, DGRO at 0.08%.
• A value tilt across roughly 70 names concentrates sector bets and puts more weight on each holding than broad dividend indexes do.

• 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 DURA profile⁠

Full SCHD profile⁠