This Overlooked ETF Hunts for the Highest Dividends Outside the U.S.
A small, overlooked ETF has quietly beaten Vanguard's popular international dividend fund over five and ten years, yet almost nobody knows it exists. The reason it stays off most investors' radar has nothing to do with performance.
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Many retirees seeking income from outside the U.S. start with Vanguard International High Dividend Yield ETF (NASDAQ:VYMI). It is cheap, diversified and easy to find. A much smaller fund, ALPS International Sector Dividend Dogs ETF (NYSEARCA:IDOG), goes after the same income with a different method. Over longer stretches, it has kept up with the Vanguard fund and in some periods done better.
How IDOG Picks Its Dividend Payers
IDOG tracks the S-Network International Sector Dividend Dogs Index. The index takes five high-yielding securities, based on regular cash dividends, from each sector of its foreign developed-market universe and gives them equal weights. The fund has traded since 2013.
Because of that design, one sector can’t take over the fund. In the most recent holdings report, dated August 31, 2026, each position sat close to 2% of net assets. The biggest holding, A.P. Moller-Maersk, was only 2.37%, and Nippon Steel and Coloplast were just below it. The fund has financials, energy, telecom, pharmaceuticals, industrials, materials, transportation and utilities. By country, it reaches into Europe, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Nordic region, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China.
VYMI tracks an index of non-US companies that are characterized by high dividend yields. That index weights holdings according to their size, so the largest companies get the most money. IDOG gives a mid-sized Nordic telecom the same weight as a European megabank.
Performance Holds Up Against a Bigger Rival
Here is how the two funds compare on adjusted price returns through November 2, 2026:
| Period | IDOG | VYMI |
|---|---|---|
| Year to date | 15.16% | 16.06% |
| One year | 21.84% | 23.84% |
| Five years | 92.62% | 85.47% |
| Ten years | 188.33% | 181.9% |
VYMI has done a little better over the past year. IDOG comes out ahead over five and ten years. For investors who plan in decades, the longer periods tell you more.
Yield Comes With Uneven Checks
IDOG paid $1.87153 per share over the trailing 12 months. At a recent price of $42.85, that works out to a trailing yield of about 4.37%. Based on the annualized forward rate of $1.534, the yield is closer to 3.58%.
The fund pays quarterly, but the checks are not the same size. The June 2026 payout was $0.9313, while March brought only $0.1807. That’s because many European companies pay most of their annual dividend in the spring. Retirees who count on even monthly income should plan around that pattern.
Currency and Foreign Taxes Deserve Attention
IDOG holds foreign shares, so a weaker dollar adds to returns and a stronger dollar takes away from them. That applies to both price and dividends. VYMI has the same exposure.
Foreign governments often withhold tax on dividends before the money reaches the fund. U.S. law allows a fund pass those taxes through to shareholders as a credit when more than half its assets are foreign stock (26 U.S.C. § 853(a)). That credit can help in a taxable account. The IRS notes that its investment income rules “do not apply to investments held in individual retirement arrangements (IRAs)”, so withholding inside an IRA usually can’t be recovered. It’s worth thinking about which account would has this fund.
Why So Few Investors Know This Fund
IDOG has about $573 million in net assets, which is small next to Vanguard’s huge fund family. ALPS has no retail brand that brings in investors on its own. The “Dogs” name sounds like a gimmick, and an equal-weighted, sector-capped strategy is harder to explain than “high-dividend stocks abroad.” Costs are another factor. VYMI charges 0.07%. IDOG’s expense ratio was not in the latest filing data, so investors should check the current prospectus before comparing the two.
Who Should Take a Closer Look
IDOG may suit retirees seeking high foreign yields without leaning too hard on banks or energy, and who like holding value-priced developed-market stocks. The main tradeoff is lumpy payouts, a probably higher fee and less diversification than VYMI’s much wider portfolio, in return for spreading money equally across sectors. Two things to watch: the fund’s next distribution, and how the dollar moves against the euro and yen.
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Jake has been been working in financial media for almost 15 years. He focuses on all things personal finance for 24/7 Wall St. with high hopes to educate and entertain. Most recently, Jake spent 12 years working various roles at The Motley Fool. He started copy editing fool.com content, worked on premium and marketing campaigns, and helped launch The Ascent, a personal finance brand.
His work has been featured on platforms like MSN, Yahoo Finance, USA Today, and more. He's written about credit cards, social security, ETFs, savings accounts, and just about anything else you can imagine when thinking about money. Jake love to cook, play golf, and tell people he's never had a cavity. (It's true!)
