Colorado Wealth Management compiled a list of exchange-traded funds to provide steady dividends for investors seeking an alternative to bonds, especially since bond yields have been slim since the 2008 financial crisis.

“There are five dividend ETFs that quickly come to mind as strong options for the investor seeking a solid yield and growth in dividends paid,” the firm says in a Seeking Alpha blog. “They were also screened to ensure fairly low operating expenses.”

The S&P 500’s dividend yield is about 2 percent, compared with 2.5 percent for the 10-year U.S. Treasury bill. With the Federal Reserve planning to raise interest rates three times this year, bond yields may rise as prices fall.

Here are Colorado Wealth Management’s top five picks, with expense ratios as low as 0.07% and as much as 0.12%:

1. Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD): “SCHD regularly carries an exceptionally high allocation to consumer staples, which makes it an excellent choice among investors who are concerned about the economy but want to remain invested in equity. It is still very low on financials and ignores real estate, so it makes sense to complement investing in SCHD with doing due diligence on financials and REITs for the retirement portfolio.”
2. Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (VYM): “VYM is an alternative that runs materially lighter on the consumer staples (though still above the benchmark), but doesn't exclude most of the financial services sector. Consequently, VYM would be a more logical choice if the investor considers stronger inflation to be a very strong possibility or if they believe short-term rates will be increased even if inflation doesn't completely justify the movement.”
3. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG): “The portfolio of VIG demonstrates an ETF that is now very heavy on industrials. 23% of the portfolio is there, and it more than doubles the benchmark allocation. The heavy emphasis on industrials is not entirely unique, but VIG came in the highest on that metric. On the other hand, the fund had almost no allocation to energy or communication services.”
4. iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF (DGRO): “It wouldn’t make a great deal of sense for investors to pick both DGRO and VIG. One or the other should suffice. The investor picking DGRO gets significantly more technology stocks at the cost of consumer staples. However, DGRO meets VYM in being the only other fund with significant allocations to financial services.”
5. iShares Core High Dividend ETF (HDV): "HDV is regularly the winner in this column. If you run screening metrics for high dividend ETFs limited to low expense ratios and diversified funds, the highest yield usually ends up with the same ETF.”

“Each of these five dividend ETFs is a great choice for a long-term investor,” Colorado Wealth Management says. “However, this is far from the ideal time to publish on them, since equity indexes are already reaching insane heights. Based on the rally seen in the markets, each of these ETFs would start to get very attractive after about a 15 percent decline. Even a 10 percent decline could put shares within reach without grasping for equity at record-high prices.”

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