Emerging Market Dividend ETFs May Lower Portfolio Risk

State Street didn’t invent the concept of dividend-oriented exposure to emerging markets. The Matthews Fund family has been ultra successful with its Matthews Asia Dividend Fund (MAPIX) for many years. What’s more, WisdomTree’s Emerging Market Equity Income ETF (DEM) tracks an emerging market dividend index and has been a mainstay since July 2007. With that said, MAPIX focuses exclusively on Asia, carries an annual expense ratio north of 1%, and is less “liquid” with end-of-the-day pricing. WisdomTree’s DEM is far more diversified across emerging markets, yet nearly one-third of the fund is concentrated in its top 10 holdings and the Current P/E may be regarded by some as a bit rich (12.3). The question, then, is whether or not SPDR S&P Emerging Market Dividend ETF (EDIV) offers anything new? I believe that it does, but I also believe that it may not deviate all that much from DEM - an... Read more