Quick Read – DGRO outearns VIG by roughly $390 annually on a $100,000 position while charging only 4 extra basis points in fees. – DGRO has outpaced VIG on total returns across every trailing window, building a 12-percentage-point edge over the past decade. – Investors who own…
e Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSEARCA:VIG) generally bought it for one reason: exposure to companies with a decade or more of rising dividends, wrapped in a Vanguard fee structure. That thesis remains intact
VIG tracks the S&P U.S. Dividend Growers Index, screens out the top-yielding 25% of eligible names to avoid stressed payers, and charges an expense ratio of just 0.04%. The fund now manages roughly $124.7 billion in net assets, making VIG the largest U.S. dividend growth ETF by a wide margin.
The catch is that a very similar fund pays materially more today for almost the same all-in cost, and has quietly delivered better total returns across every trailing window that matters. That fund is the iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF (NYSEARCA:DGRO), a $39.6 billion BlackRock product built around the Morningstar US Dividend Growth Index. Where VIG Leaves Income on the Table The methodology here insists on a 10-year streak of consecutive dividend increases.