Vanguard is the second-largest U.S. issuer of exchange traded funds and adding assets at a feverish. However, the company does not bring many new ETFs to market, but when it does, those funds are usually successful.
Just look at the Vanguard International Dividend Appreciation ETF (NasdaqGM: VIGI), which debuted in early March 2016. At the end of March 2017, VIGI had nearly $360 million in assets under management, easily making it one of the most successful ETFs to debut last year.
VIGI is the international answer to the popular Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSEArca: VIG), the largest U.S. dividend ETF.
VIGI, one of just two new ETFs launched by Vanguard last year, “emphasizes stocks exhibiting dividend growth and seeks to track the Nasdaq International Dividend Achievers Select Index, which comprises more than 200 all-cap developed and emerging markets stocks with a track record of increasing annual dividend payments,” according to Vanguard.
VIGI makes sense for dividend investors of all types because an often overlooked fact to dividend investing is that a significant amount of the world’s dividend-paying stocks are found outside the U.S. Additionally, many developed markets dividend payers feature higher yields than the competing U.S. equities.