FDL vs VIG

FDLCFirst Trust Morningstar Dividend Leaders Index Fund

VIGAVanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF

In short

FDL FDL doesn't weight by company size or by yield. It weights by dividend dollars, so America's biggest cash payers carry the most weight. Roughly 100 high-yield names, screened for payouts they can keep funding, running 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

FDL The fund is an exchange-traded index fund seeking to replicate the price and yield of the Morningstar Dividend Leaders Index before fees and expenses.

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

• FDL Weight follows the checkbook: positions are sized by the dollar value of dividends paid, with any single name capped at 10% and all 5%-plus names capped at 50% combined.contentstack.io
• The screen is about payout durability, not just headline yield: stocks need a consistent payment record and the ability to sustain it before the top 100 yielders are taken.yahoo.com
• Trading since 2006, a multi-billion-dollar fund that changes hands actively and pays on a quarterly schedule.
• Lands in the upper half of a US dividend-screen peer group of roughly 50 funds.

• 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

• FDL At 0.43% it costs more than the cheap index heavyweights in the group (VIG 0.04%, SCHD 0.06%, DGRO 0.08%) and sits a little above the peer median.
• Concentrated by design: about 100 names, non-diversified, and the dividend-dollar math tilts toward the mega-caps and sectors writing the biggest checks.yahoo.comcontentstack.io
• Yield-first, not dividend-growth. The portfolio looks different from growth-screened peers like VIG and DGRO, which start from rising payouts instead of high ones.yahoo.com

• 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 FDL profile⁠

Full VIG profile⁠