RJDI vs SPYD

RJDIFRJ Eagle GCM Dividend Select Income ETF

SPYDAState Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 High Dividend ETF

In short

RJDI Most dividend funds just run a screen. RJDI writes its goals down as a contract: yield above the S&P 500 and inflation, dividend growth above inflation, and volatility no higher than the index over a full cycle. Active, and priced like it.

SPYD Most dividend ETFs hunt for companies that keep raising payouts. SPYD skips the courtship and goes straight for the yield: roughly 80 high-dividend names out of the S&P 500, for 0.07% a year.

Stated mandate

RJDI The fund seeks current income and capital appreciation. It is actively managed and targets dividend yield above the S&P 500 and inflation, dividend growth above inflation, and volatility no higher than the index over a full market cycle.

SPYD The fund seeks to provide returns that generally correspond to the total return of the S&P 500 High Dividend Index before fees and expenses.

Why people hold it

• RJDI The mandate is unusually specific for an active fund: yield above both the S&P 500 and inflation, dividend growth above inflation, and volatility no higher than the index over a full market cycle.
• Actively managed rather than screen-bound, so a manager can act on a deteriorating payer between reconstitution dates instead of waiting for the index calendar.
• Income lands quarterly, and the stated objective pairs current income with capital appreciation instead of reaching for the highest yield on the board.

• SPYD 0.07% a year against a 0.39% median across dividend-screen peers. It undercuts DGRO's 0.08% and sits a hair above SCHD.
• A pure yield screen, not a growth screen. Where VIG and DGRO buy payout raisers, SPYD takes the high-dividend end of the S&P 500. Different flavor of the same food group.
• Running since 2015, now a multi-billion-dollar fund and one of the more actively traded names in its cohort, so getting in and out is rarely the hard part.
• Pays quarterly and has tracked the S&P 500 High Dividend Index closely, which is the whole job for a fund like this.

Worth knowing

• RJDI Active management carries an active price tag: 0.63% a year, while cohort leaders SCHD, VIG and DGRO charge single-digit basis points for rules-based dividend exposure.
• It launched in October 2025, so there is little history yet to judge the yield, growth and volatility targets against.
• A young, thinly traded fund can show wider bid-ask spreads than the category's household names, a cost that shows up on the way in and the way out.

• SPYD About 80 stocks is a narrow slice. Screening on yield pulls the sector mix away from the broad S&P 500, and the ride can be bumpier than the index it comes from.
• A high yield is a ranking, not a promise. The index sorts on payout size, not on how reliably a company has grown or defended that payout.

Full RJDI profile⁠

Full SPYD profile⁠