Yield HubCanada's dividend, bond and cash ETFs, decoded

Next: 01 · How much of the payout is recurring? →

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01 · How much of the payout is recurring?

A distribution can contain three broad components. It can be income the holdings earned and handed on to you, dividends and interest. It can be capital gains the fund realized by selling holdings. Or it can be your own money coming back, which is called return of capital.

Recurring yield keeps only the first one: the fund's yield multiplied by the recurring share of its payout, taken from its latest annual tax filing. Two funds can both post a 4% yield while one earns every cent of it and the other hands a third of your money back to you.

We are interested in the recurring share because this income is linked to real economic activity in the holdings: dividends declared, interest paid, and rent collected. Realized gains require market values to rise relative to the portfolio's cost base and the fund to sell holdings, so this share can vary from one annual filing to the next. A payout that leans on gains therefore has a different reported composition and risk pattern from one supported more by income from holdings. The distinction is clearest when you spend distributions rather than reinvest them.

The last three columns are that filing, split three ways. They add up to everything the fund paid over the year.

02 · Is the payout growing, and can you count on it?

This measures three-year annualized growth in recurring income per unit, using fund tax filings. It compares recurring distributions per unit, so a rising unit price cannot make the result look stronger. Return of capital and capital gains are excluded: they can raise cash paid out without showing recurring income per unit growing.

Why it matters: flat cash loses purchasing power year after year. At the Bank of Canada's 2% inflation target, a flat payout buys about a fifth less after a decade. A high trailing yield can also reflect a fallen unit price alongside a falling payout. The growth figure describes whether the underlying recurring-income stream was holding steady or shrinking.

In the figure, each family shows its spread of results, with a median mark on every row and one dot for each fund. The zero line separates growing recurring income from shrinking recurring income. Across all measured funds, the median was +3.7% per year, yet 12 of 49 shrank; the widest spread appears in dividend mandates, the largest group.

The table then looks backward at the same question. We add up the cash paid per unit in each full year and compare it with the year before: a cut year is one that paid at least 5% less, and the run counts back from the most recent full year. The raised-versus-cutting column goes one level further down, to the holdings themselves, and counts how many raised their own dividend over the past year and how many cut.

03 · What risk are you taking?

The chart plots each measured income fund's three-year annualized total return against the annualized volatility of its daily prices. After sorting this 100-fund cohort by volatility, the lower-volatility group had median volatility of 11.5% and median total return of 16.4%; the higher-volatility group had 14.1% and 14.4%, respectively. Around the anchors' 12.9% to 14.5% volatility, the four broad-market funds clustered at 21% to 24% a year, while income funds ranged from about 3% to 35%. Daily-price volatility is not a complete measure of income risk, as a fund can look placid while its payout or NAV changes; these are results for the three years ended September 10, 2026, not a forecast.

Concentration is measured through the underlying companies. Top 10 weight is the combined weight of the ten largest companies in the equity sleeve. For mixed funds, Equity sleeve shows how much of the whole fund is invested in companies. Bond, cash and unresolved fund-level positions are excluded from the concentration calculation.

Concentration is unavailable when the underlying holdings are not sufficiently reported.

The remaining columns show the deepest three-year decline, recovery time, day-to-day price volatility, and the return earned above cash for each point of volatility.

04 · What do you keep after tax?

Account type can change what a distribution is worth. Two funds with the same trailing yield can leave different amounts after tax because their distributions contain different mixes of eligible Canadian dividends, non-eligible Canadian dividends, interest, foreign income, capital gains and return of capital.

In a TFSA, distributions and withdrawals are generally tax-free. In an FHSA, distributions grow without current tax and qualifying home withdrawals are tax-free; other withdrawals can be taxable. In an RRSP or RRIF, distributions compound without current tax and withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. The estimate shown here assumes withdrawal in 10 years at a 30% tax rate and discounts that future tax at 5% a year.

In a non-registered account, eligible Canadian dividends receive the dividend tax credit. Non-eligible Canadian dividends receive a smaller credit. Interest and foreign income face ordinary-income rates. Half of capital gains is taxable. Return of capital reduces adjusted cost base, which defers tax until a later sale.

Premium unlocks the account and province comparison. The table starts with trailing cash yield, then shows the estimated after-tax yield and how the latest T3 distribution was reported. A high payout can still rank lower when more of it is taxed at ordinary-income rates.

05 · Build your own shortlist

No single dividend fund fits every goal, because the trade-offs differ. Set how much you care about recurring income, income growth, return for the risk taken and after-tax yield. The table updates as you change the weights.

Each fund gets a percentile rank for every included measure. The weights combine those ranks into a score out of 100. A score of 80 means the weighted average of the active percentile ranks is 80.

The score includes only funds with a value for every measure given a positive weight. Setting a weight to zero removes that measure. If all weights are zero, the tool returns to equal weighting.

After-tax yield follows the account and province selected in Q04. Free readers can rank on recurring income, growth and risk. Premium adds after-tax yield.

Next: 01 · What does the whole portfolio own? →

01 · What does the whole portfolio own?

Asset mix is the share of the whole portfolio invested in equities, bonds, cash and other assets. It is the main reason a growth portfolio behaves differently from a balanced or conservative portfolio.

The table shows each fund’s published mix and ranks funds by equity allocation within the selected category. Use the category lenses to compare Growth, Balanced, Conservative and Income portfolios.

When a fund publishes a complete portfolio mix, an omitted sleeve is shown as 0%. If there is not enough information to resolve the whole mix, its allocation is unavailable.

02 · Where does the distribution come from?

A multi-asset portfolio can distribute bond interest, foreign income, Canadian dividends, capital gains and return of capital. The latest T3 shows how the fund reported that year's distribution for tax.

The figure averages one shared tax year across portfolios with a complete T3 character. In the table, recurring income is a subtotal of its components. Capital gains and return of capital are separate distribution sources.

03 · How do income and return compare?

Trailing yield measures the cash a portfolio distributed over the last 12 months. Total return adds changes in the unit value to the cash received. The two can move differently because an allocation's equity and bond sleeves both contribute to return.

The chart places the current trailing yield beside the recent three-year total return, so the cash payout and the whole result can be read together.

04 · What did the return cost in volatility?

Volatility measures day-to-day movement in the unit price. Drawdown records the largest peak-to-trough fall during the same three-year period.

The chart shows whether portfolios with larger price swings also delivered larger three-year returns. The table adds drawdown because two funds with a similar volatility figure can still have experienced very different falls.

05 · Build your own shortlist

Set the importance of total return, yield, volatility and maximum drawdown. The table reorders live. Total return and yield contribute more when higher; volatility and maximum drawdown contribute more when lower.

The shortlist includes portfolios with every measure given a positive weight. Set a weight to zero to remove that measure from the score.

The score is a weighted percentile comparison, not a forecast.

Next: 01 · What do the bonds yield? →

01 · What do the bonds yield?

Yield to maturity estimates the annual return built into the bonds a fund holds at today’s prices. It includes their interest payments and the difference between today’s bond price and the amount repaid at maturity.

Target-maturity funds make this easier to see. Each fund holds bonds due around the same year, so plotting yield to maturity by target year creates a fund-level yield curve.

The chart compares Canadian and U.S. investment-grade target-maturity funds with the same target years. It shows how yields change as repayment moves further into the future and how yields differ between the two bond markets. The table ranks all bond funds with a current published yield to maturity, and the lens separates fund types and target-maturity markets.

02 · How sensitive is it to rates?

Duration measures how sensitive a bond fund’s price is to interest-rate changes. A duration of six years means the fund’s price would be expected to fall by about 6% if rates rose by one percentage point, or rise by about 6% if rates fell by the same amount. Coupon income and other market changes also affect the actual return.

To make the comparison meaningful, the chart uses only Canada-focused, Canadian-dollar government bond funds. It shows the average yield to maturity within each duration range. The table covers the broader bond universe and ranks funds by duration. Use the fund-family lens to narrow the comparison.

03 · Who owes you, and how strong are they?

A bond fund can lend to governments, companies, or both. The borrower matters because the extra yield offered by corporate and lower-rated bonds compensates investors for taking more credit risk.

Credit ratings provide a starting point for judging that risk. Investment-grade bonds are rated BBB or higher. Below-investment-grade bonds carry more risk of missed payments or losses. Not rated means the fund does not report a rating for that portion of the portfolio; it does not automatically mean the bonds are low quality.

The chart compares government, aggregate and investment-grade corporate funds within the same duration range. It includes only Canada-focused, Canadian-dollar funds so differences in currency and interest-rate markets do not distort the comparison. The distance between the points shows how much additional yield each category currently offers.

The table shows the published rating and borrower mix for individual funds, exactly as each fund reports it. Published rating shares do not always add to the whole portfolio, so the columns can leave a remainder that no rating column describes. Funds that report a negative rating share, or a set of shares that does not describe a whole portfolio, are left out of these columns instead of being rescaled. The table is ranked by below-investment-grade share, with the funds carrying the most at the top.

04 · What does the latest T3 say?

For a non-registered account, interest and foreign income are ordinary income. Capital gains and return of capital have different treatment. The latest T3 is a description of the distribution reported for that tax year, not a forecast of the next one.

Canada-focused and foreign-focused bond funds can both be mostly ordinary income. Foreign-focused funds can also report foreign tax paid. That amount is shown separately because withholding is not an additional slice of the payout.

Where capital gains come from: a fund generally realizes them when it sells a bond for more than its tax cost. A bond's price can rise when market yields fall or its issuer's credit spread narrows.

Rebalancing and other portfolio changes can turn those price movements into realized gains. The capital-gains slice on a T3 therefore records gains realized during that tax year. It is not coupon income and is not necessarily a repeatable source of cash.

The table uses funds with complete ordinary-income data for the comparison.

05 · Build your own shortlist

Set the importance of three measures and the table reorders live. Yield to maturity contributes more when higher; duration and below-investment-grade share contribute more when lower.

The shortlist compares funds carrying all three measures. It is a live comparison of the published readings, not a prediction of future returns or credit outcomes.

Next: 01 · How much came from income and price changes? →

01 · How much came from income and price changes?

Total return reflects both distributions and changes in the unit price. This figure keeps the two annualized three-year components on the same time window.

Returns compound multiplicatively, so the income-return and price-return figures do not need to add exactly to total return. The table ranks the available funds by their income return.

02 · How much of the payout was recurring income?

Recurring yield identifies the current yield supported by recurring income in the payout record. The trailing yield includes every cash component paid over the last 12 months.

The table includes only funds without a flagged unusually large payout, with a recurring yield and a complete latest T3 character. The tax columns describe the reported payout components for that T3 year.

03 · How severe was the fall, and did it recover?

Maximum drawdown is the deepest peak-to-trough fall in the unit price over three years. Recovery time measures how long it took to regain the prior peak.

The chart includes only funds that recovered. Funds still below their previous peak are named in the caption instead of being assigned a recovery time they have not reached.