With money market funds and short Treasury bills still hovering near 4.6%, the bar for owning anything with equity-like risk has gone up. Income investors keep asking the same question: which funds actually pay enough to justify stepping outside cash? Three under-followed ETFs have earned a spot on this comparison, and each solves the income problem with a completely different engine. Man Global Investment Grade Opportunities ETF (NASDAQ:DYV) leans on global investment-grade corporate bonds. Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility ETF (NYSEARCA:SPHD) screens the S&P 500 for the highest dividends among the least jumpy stocks. And Virtus InfraCap U.S. Preferred Stock ETF (NYSEARCA:PFFA) uses modest leverage on preferred stock of infrastructure issuers.
None of these trade near the size of the household-name dividend ETFs, which is part of why they can offer income that larger, better-known funds cannot easily match.
Why this matters now
The 10-year Treasury closed the week of July 17, 2026 at 4.55%, near the top of its 12-month range. June CPI came in softer than expected, pulling yields back from a near two-month high, but geopolitical uncertainty tied to U.S.-Iran tensions has kept bond markets volatile. Markets are now pricing in a meaningful probability of a Fed rate hike before year-end. That backdrop creates a real dilemma for income investors: cash and short-duration Treasuries pay well on paper, but investors taxed at ordinary income rates give back a significant portion of that headline number. The three ETFs below pay more, distribute monthly, and offer at least some capital appreciation potential if the rate environment eventually eases.
Man Global Investment Grade Opportunities (DYV): the credit play
DYV is the contrarian pick on this list. Most income roundups never leave U.S. equity dividend funds, but DYV is a globally diversified investment-grade corporate bond fund with a current yield of 5.5%. The mechanism is straightforward: it buys corporate credit where the manager believes the spread over government bonds overstates the actual default risk, then collects the coupon while waiting for spreads to compress.
The portfolio tilts heavily toward financial issuers, with roughly 30% in other financials, 18% in banks, and 9% in insurance. Geographically, about 32% sits in continental Europe and 12% in Latin America, with North America at 23%. Credit quality clusters at BBB, the sweet spot for picking up incremental yield without dropping into junk territory. The fund holds $6.9 billion in assets, and its cost structure is lean relative to comparable actively managed global credit strategies.
What you give up is straightforward: DYV is a bond fund. In a credit-spread shock or a sharp sell-off in European banks, it will mark down alongside the rest of the corporate bond market. Currency exposure is hedged back to U.S. dollars, so there is no euro bet embedded in the position, but investors are accepting global credit risk in exchange for a yield that sits meaningfully above the 10-year Treasury.
Invesco S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility (SPHD): the defensive dividend
SPHD is the equity option on this list, built specifically for investors who want dividend income without the gut-punch drawdowns that come with chasing the highest payers in the index. The methodology starts with the 75 highest-yielding S&P 500 names, then narrows that to the 50 with the lowest realized volatility. That second screen is the entire point: many of the highest-yielding stocks in any given year carry rich yields precisely because the share price has collapsed. The volatility filter removes those.
Distributions are paid monthly, and the income story has strengthened since this article was first published. SPHD paid out $2.33 per share over the trailing 12 months against a current price of roughly $52, working out to a trailing yield near 4.5%. AUM has grown to $3.23 billion, reflecting the fund’s growing popularity among income-focused investors in the current rate environment.
Performance has also improved materially. SPHD is up roughly 11% year to date and about 12% over the past year, well ahead of the figures reported at publication. The tradeoff remains the same one embedded in the methodology: utilities, consumer staples, telecom, and REITs dominate the portfolio. In a risk-on rally led by technology and growth, SPHD will lag the broader index. It is built to bend less in corrections, with the tradeoff of lagging in growth-led markets.
Virtus InfraCap U.S. Preferred Stock (PFFA): the yield outlier
PFFA is where the yield math gets interesting. Preferred stock occupies the layer of the capital structure between bonds and common equity: it pays a fixed dividend, ranks ahead of common shareholders in liquidation, and behaves more like a long-duration bond than a stock. PFFA concentrates on preferreds issued by U.S. infrastructure companies, primarily REITs, utilities, energy midstream operators, and financials, and then applies modest leverage to amplify the income.
That combination pushes the distribution rate well above anything in plain-vanilla preferred funds. PFFA pays $0.1725 per share monthly, an annualized run rate of $2.07. At a current price near $21, the fund’s forward yield sits close to 10%. Distributions have grown every year since 2021, rising from $0.16 monthly to the current rate.
The leverage story cuts both ways. PFFA’s Q1 2026 NAV return came in at -3.39%, underperforming its benchmark’s -2.36% return, as overweight positions in financial services preferred stocks were hurt by concerns around private credit markets. When credit spreads widen or rates spike, leveraged preferred funds face a double headwind: the value of the underlying preferreds falls and the cost of borrowed money rises simultaneously. PFFA can move 15% to 20% in a quarter when the long end of the curve dislocates. Position sizing should reflect that volatility.
Which one fits which investor
The three funds serve different roles, and are not interchangeable. A retiree who needs predictable monthly income and cannot tolerate a 20% drawdown may find SPHD worth researching, where the volatility screen does meaningful work in corrections. An investor already overweight U.S. equities who wants to add a credit sleeve at a competitive yield could look at DYV, where the geographic and sector diversification reduces overlap with a typical domestic portfolio. An investor who already owns plenty of defensive equity and is willing to accept real mark-to-market volatility in exchange for a near-double-digit distribution may want to research PFFA as a smaller, sized position.
The reason all three remain under-owned relative to their yields is the same: each one requires understanding a specific mechanism, not just a ticker symbol. That specificity is the entire edge.
Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect current market data as of July 2026. SPHD’s trailing 12-month payout was revised to $2.33 per share and its YTD and 1-year total returns were refreshed to approximately 11% and 12%, respectively. PFFA’s current price and forward yield were updated to reflect its trading price near $21 and a yield approaching 10%, and Q1 2026 performance context was added to illustrate the fund’s leverage-related risk. The 10-year Treasury yield reference was updated to 4.55% as of July 17, 2026, with added context on the June CPI print and geopolitical influences on the rate environment.
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