"You Can't Beat the S&P 500." Here Are the Dividend ETFs That Have.
It's one of the most repeated lines in investing: just buy the S&P 500, because almost nothing beats it over time. For most actively managed funds, the data backs that up. But "almost nothing" isn't nothing. Across the … ETFs we track on TopDividendETFs.com, a real group of funds has delivered a higher annualized total return since inception than Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF, $VOO.
This page keeps a running list of them. It reads the same database that powers the TopDividendETFsPRO terminal, so when a fund climbs above $VOO's annualized return it shows up here, and when it falls back below, it drops off. No manual updates required.
How This List Works
📐 Annualized return, explained in one line
We take each fund's total return since inception (price change plus every distribution) and convert it to a compound annual growth rate: the steady yearly return that would have produced the same result. That lets a 16-year-old fund and a 2-year-old fund sit in the same table. It's the same calculation shown in the Annualized column of the PRO terminal, recalculated every time this page loads.
- To make the main list, a fund needs at least one full year of trading history and an annualized return above $VOO's.
- Funds under one year old go in the On Deck table. Annualizing a few months of returns produces eye-popping numbers that don't mean much yet.
- Track record matters. We tag every fund with its age and give the 3+ year funds their own table, because beating $VOO for 4 years is a different achievement than beating it for 14 months.
The Long-Haul Club: Beating $VOO With 3+ Years of History
These are the most meaningful names on the page. Each has at least three years of real-world results, which means each has lived through rate hikes, sell-offs, and rebounds, and still compounded faster than $VOO's long-run rate.
| # | Ticker | Fund | Annualized | vs $VOO | Total Return | Track Record | Inception | Yield | Price Decay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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… funds · sorted by annualized return · click any ticker for its full scorecard
Want to sort every ETF in our database by annualized return yourself? The TopDividendETFsPRO terminal shows annualized return, total return, yield, price decay, tax treatment, and more for every fund, with filters, watchlists, and daily yield and total return movers.
Open the PRO Terminal ⭐Full List: Every Dividend ETF Beating $VOO (1+ Year Track Record)
The complete board. Search by ticker or name, filter by track record or price decay, or click a column header to re-sort.
| # | Ticker | Fund | Annualized | vs $VOO | Total Return | Track Record | Inception | Yield | Price Decay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Showing … of … funds
On Deck: Beating $VOO, But Under 1 Year Old
These funds are ahead of $VOO's annualized pace, but with less than a year of history the number is mostly a projection. They'll graduate to the main list automatically once they hit their first anniversary, if they're still ahead.
| # | Ticker | Fund | Annualized | vs $VOO | Total Return | Track Record | Inception | Yield | Price Decay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Watch these funds without refreshing this page
Add any ticker to your PRO watchlist and track its yield and total return changes every day, alongside every other income ETF we track.
Spotlights: The Names Worth a Closer Look
These picks are chosen automatically from the live list, so they change as the data does.
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⚡ A Word on the Single-Stock Rockets
Many of the biggest annualized numbers on this page come from option income funds tied to one stock. They've ridden huge runs in their underlying shares, and many also show price decay, meaning their share price has fallen since launch and the total return comes from distributions. That can reverse quickly if the underlying stock turns. Use the "No price decay" filter above to separate them out.
The Catch: Why Young Funds Look So Good Against $VOO
This list is a fun, honest scoreboard, but it compares different time periods. $VOO's … covers … years that include the 2020 crash and the 2022 bear market. A fund launched in the last year or two may have only lived through a strong stretch for stocks. If $VOO were measured over the same short window, its annualized number would often be higher than its long-run annualized rate.
- Short records swing wildly. One great year annualizes into a huge number; one bad year can knock a fund right off this list.
- Concentration cuts both ways. Sector and single-stock funds can beat $VOO by a mile, or trail it by a mile, depending on one industry or one company.
- Price decay matters for income investors. A fund can beat $VOO on total return while its share price shrinks. Filter by "No price decay" above to see which funds did both.
- Taxes aren't included. High distributions can be taxed very differently from $VOO's small, mostly qualified dividends.
⚠️ Past Performance Isn't a Promise
Every number on this page is backward-looking. Beating $VOO so far does not mean a fund will keep beating it. Use this list as a starting point for research, not as a buy list.