IVV vs SCHD

IVVAiShares Core S&P 500 ETF

SCHDASchwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF

In short

IVV The 2000-vintage iShares take on the S&P 500, now a $100B-plus cornerstone holding: roughly 500 large US companies, 0.03% a year, and tracking that stays tight to the index.

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

IVV The fund seeks to track the investment results of an index made up of large-capitalization U.S. equities.

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

• IVV Costs 0.03% a year, a fraction of the typical fee among S&P 500 trackers, and undercuts the category's founding fund (SPY, 0.09%) on the same index.
• Tracking is the whole job, and it does it about as tightly as this peer group gets: roughly 500 large US companies, no manager discretion bolted on.
• A $100B-plus fund that trades heavily all session, which is what keeps bid-ask spreads thin for retail-sized orders and institutional blocks alike.
• Running since 2000 as a registered open-end fund, with quarterly distributions and one of the longest live records in the S&P 500 aisle.ishares.com

• 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

• IVV Pure US large cap. No mid caps, no small caps, nothing overseas, so it works as one slab of a portfolio rather than the whole thing.
• It rides the index in both directions: when the S&P 500 has an ugly year, this has the same ugly year, minus the fee.
• A near-identical rival shaves a basis point (SPYM at 0.02%). On $10,000 that gap is about a dollar a year, so structure and trading habits matter more.

• 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 IVV profile⁠

Full SCHD profile⁠