Investors who would like exposure to dividend stocks through an exchange-traded fund have plenty of good ones to choose from, Morningstar investment specialist Susan Dziubinski wrote in a blog post this week.
Dividend ETFs maintain a portfolio of dividend stocks, Dziubinski noted, providing instant diversification while being generally low cost.
They are also easy to buy and sell, and many of the best ones are managed by well-known asset managers with brokerage platforms.
Dziubinski cautioned investors looking for passive income to focus on more than the highest-yielding dividend ETFs, as those with the biggest yields may be taking on outsize risks or might be expensive.
At Morningstar, analysts look for dividend ETFs that earn the firm's medalist ratings of gold or silver with 100% of coverage. These, Dziubinski said, generally charge low fees and are likely to outperform over a full market cycles.
In selecting the best high-dividend ETFs for 2026, analysts included only those with trailing 12-month yields higher than that of the S&P 500 as of May 1.
All the ETFs on the list focus on income but practice different strategies, Dziubinski said. As a result, they can behave very differently from one another, so investors should understand exactly what a particular dividend ETF invests in before buying it.
See the accompanying gallery for the best dividend ETFs for passive income in 2026. Year-to-date performance is as of May 7.
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