DVDN vs MORT

DVDNDKingsbarn Dividend Opportunity ETF

MORTBVanEck Mortgage REIT Income ETF

In short

DVDN A boutique, genuinely active take on dividend investing: at least 80% of assets in companies that paid a dividend last year, run through a value-leaning, multi-stage selection process. Small, young (2023), and priced at 0.90%.

MORT Landlords collect rent. Mortgage REITs collect interest. MORT tracks an index of roughly two dozen of them, a pure play on the lending side of real estate that has been running since 2011.

Stated mandate

DVDN The Fund seeks its objective by investing at least 80% of its assets, under normal conditions, in companies that paid a dividend during the preceding year.

MORT The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MVIS US Mortgage REITs Index, representing U.S. mortgage REITs.

Why people hold it

• DVDN Stock-picked, not screen-picked: a multi-stage, value-leaning process chooses the names, with at least 80% of assets in companies that paid a dividend in the prior year.
• Straightforward plumbing: a 1940 Act US equity fund that distributes quarterly, with income sourced from the dividend payers it owns rather than an options overlay.
• The mandate is deliberately wide: any US dividend payer qualifies, so managers can tilt toward value without being boxed in by a rigid yield or dividend-growth rulebook.

• MORT Costs 0.43% a year, below the 0.51% median for real estate sector ETFs and well under niche peers like CLIM at 0.90%.
• Live since 2011, a long run for such a narrow slice of the market, and it still does one job: track the MVIS US Mortgage REITs Index.
• Rules-based and actively traded, so the holdings come from published index criteria rather than a manager's calls, and shares change hands readily.
• Distributions land on a quarterly schedule, in step with a segment whose businesses are built around interest income rather than rent checks.

Worth knowing

• DVDN The 0.90% expense ratio runs well above the typical US dividend-income ETF, and above big active peers such as CGDV and TDVG.
• Small asset base and light trading: spreads can be wider than in mega-cap dividend funds, which makes limit orders and trade timing matter more.
• Launched in late 2023, so the record is short, and with no published index to track, results hinge on the managers' security selection.

• MORT Concentrated by design at roughly two dozen names, so one company's stumble carries real weight in the fund.
• Mortgage REITs borrow to hold mortgage assets, which makes this corner more sensitive to rate and credit swings than a property-owning REIT fund.
• One country, one industry. Cheaper real estate options exist (NURE at 0.35%), but they buy the landlords, not the lenders.

Full DVDN profile⁠

Full MORT profile⁠