8 Best Dividend Funds for Retirees

Just how important are stock dividends?

Just how important are stock dividends? Over the long haul, these cash payouts have accounted for some 40% of overall U.S. market returns. In periods of poor stock market performance, they’ve played an even larger role in returns. For that reason, we set out to find the best dividend-oriented exchange-traded funds. As you’ll see, each ETF has its own strategy, tied to the particular index it tracks.

Disclaimer

Funds are listed in alphabetical order. All prices, returns, yields and portfolio data are through May 4.

Nellie S. Huang
Senior Associate Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance

Nellie joined Kiplinger in August 2011 after a seven-year stint in Hong Kong. There, she worked for the Wall Street Journal Asia, where as lifestyle editor, she launched and edited Scene Asia, an online guide to food, wine, entertainment and the arts in Asia. Prior to that, she was an editor at Weekend Journal, the Friday lifestyle section of the Wall Street Journal Asia. Kiplinger isn't Nellie's first foray into personal finance: She has also worked at SmartMoney (rising from fact-checker to senior writer), and she was a senior editor at Money.