Reliable raisers — slow growth, high fee. Every holding has raised its dividend for at least 20 consecutive years, and the fund spreads that record across 155 names. What reaches the holder compounds slowly — $3.02 a share in 2020 to $3.63 in 2025, about 3.8% a year — and costs 0.35% a year to hold, nearly six times SCHD's 0.06% fee for a similar dividend-ETF universe. The payout is covered by the screen; the price of the screen is the drag.
Key risk: Yield weighting is the risk inside the screen: the highest-yielding raisers carry the largest weights and are re-weighted quarterly, so when a high yield is a falling price rather than a rising payout, the fund leans toward that name until the index's annual review — and a cut there cuts the distribution it passes through.
Changes if: The fee falls toward the 0.06–0.08% range charged by comparable dividend ETFs here, or the annual distribution compounds materially faster than its 2020–2025 pace of ~3.8%/yr through a full cycle without a down year — either changes the math this verdict rests on.
- ✓Coverage check: The index admits only companies that have increased their dividend for at least 20 consecutive years, reviewed annually, across 155 holdings as of Oct 22, 2026 — the distribution is those payers' dividends passed through, and no single holding carries it.
- !Yield check: 2.38% trailing is cash actually paid — $3.78 a share over the last four quarters divided by the $158.40 close on Oct 23, 2026 — in the moderate band, not distress. The flag is the level: a fund weighted by yield delivers 2.38%, below SCHD's 3.41% on this site's snapshot, before its higher fee is counted.
- !Dividend growth check: Growth is real but slow and uneven: annual totals rose in 2023, 2024 and 2025, but $3.02 a share in 2020 to $3.63 in 2025 compounds at only ~3.8%/yr, with a down year in 2022 ($3.20, from $3.39 in 2021).
What this grade doesn't say: It screens the dividend only — covered, real, compounding. It says nothing about valuation or price: a well-covered payer can still be overpriced, and its price can still fall.