VIG vs XUDV

VIGAVanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF

XUDVBFranklin US Dividend Booster Index ETF

In short

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.

XUDV Most dividend funds rank stocks by yield and buy the top of the list. XUDV's index is built by an optimizer instead, using risk models and dividend forecasts to assemble about 100 US stocks as one portfolio, at 0.09% a year.

Stated mandate

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.

XUDV The Fund intends to track its underlying index and generally maintain diversification in approximately the same proportion as that index.

Why people hold it

• 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.

• XUDV 0.09% a year against a 0.39% median for US dividend-screen funds. Index-giant pricing on a strategy that only launched in 2025.businesswire.com
• The index is built by New Frontier's optimizer, which uses commercial risk models and dividend forecasts to shape the whole portfolio rather than ranking stocks one by one on yield.businesswire.com
• Tracking has stayed tight to the index since launch, and payouts come quarterly.

Worth knowing

• 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.

• XUDV Thinly traded with a small asset base, so spreads can run wider than on the household names in this category.
• The category giants are cheaper still (VIG 0.04%, SCHD 0.06%, DGRO 0.08%) and carry far longer records than a fund that opened in January 2025.
• The optimizer is proprietary, so the selection logic is less transparent than a published yield screen you can follow line by line.businesswire.com

Full VIG profile⁠

Full XUDV profile⁠