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Remember 2021? When Guinness Atkinson made history by becoming the first asset manager to formally convert mutual funds into ETFs? That groundbreaking moment when the Dividend Builder and Asia Pacific Dividend Builder funds became SmartETFs, proving that yes, you can teach an old mutual fund new tricks?
Well, apparently that wasn't enough dividend-focused innovation for one lifetime.
This week, three new ETFs appeared in the listings: GAID (Guinness Atkinson International Dividend Builder), GAUD (Guinness Atkinson US Dividend Builder), and GARA (Guinness Atkinson Real Assets Income). The firm that pioneered mutual fund conversions has decided the next logical step is deconstructing their successful global dividend strategy into geography-specific components.
Which raises an immediate question: if you already run a successful global dividend ETF (DIVS), why would you create separate US and international versions?
The Segmentation Strategy (And Its Complications)
Guinness Atkinson already runs DIVS, the SmartETFs Dividend Builder, which invests globally in companies that have delivered inflation-adjusted cash flow returns of at least 10% annually for a decade straight. It's a quality bar so high that only about 3% of listed companies worldwide can clear it.
Now they're segmenting that approach. GAUD focuses exclusively on US dividend growers. GAID handles international markets. It's geographic specialization for investors who want to express extremely specific preferences about where their dividend growth originates.
But here's where it gets interesting: GAUD and DIVS share 43% of their holdings.
That's right. Thirteen of GAUD's thirty stocks also appear in DIVS's thirty-five stock portfolio. They overlap on the exact companies you'd expect: Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, BlackRock, Texas Instruments. The dividend aristocrats that pass rigorous quality screens regardless of which geographic mandate you're following.
What 43% Overlap Actually Means
This isn't a flaw in the strategy. It's evidence that Guinness Atkinson's quality screens genuinely work. When you demand companies deliver 10%+ inflation-adjusted cash flow returns for a decade straight, you end up with similar names whether you're screening globally or domestically. Quality dividend growers are quality dividend growers.
But it does create an interesting portfolio construction question. If you own DIVS (global dividend strategy), do you need GAUD (US dividend strategy) when nearly half of GAUD's holdings are already in your global fund?
The answer depends on what you're trying to accomplish:
GAUD adds seventeen US companies that don't make DIVS's global cut: Accenture, Lockheed Martin, Qualcomm, TE Connectivity, Broadridge Financial, Marsh & McLennan, and others. These are high-quality US dividend growers that meet the domestic threshold but don't crack the global top 35.
DIVS provides twenty-two international holdings that GAUD never touches: European stalwarts like Danone, Roche, ABB, Unilever, Deutsche Börse, plus Taiwan Semiconductor. Geographic diversification that a US-only mandate can't access.
The overlap is concentrated in mega-cap US dividend aristocrats. The differentiation comes from the edges: US mid-caps in GAUD, international blue chips in DIVS.
And Then There's Real Assets (GARA)
The Real Assets Income ETF represents something genuinely different. Real assets typically means infrastructure, real estate, commodities, natural resources – the tangible stuff that theoretically holds value when everything else goes sideways. Adding "Income" to the name suggests they're hunting for yield in sectors that produce actual cash flows rather than speculative appreciation.
This makes strategic sense in late 2025. With interest rates having done their chaotic dance over the past few years, and inflation proving less “transitory" than advertised, real assets with genuine income generation have regained their appeal. It's almost as if having exposure to things that exist in physical space and produce measurable cash flows provides some comfort when equity valuations get... abstract.
GARA joins a crowded field of real asset strategies, but if Guinness Atkinson applies the same rigorous cash flow return screens to infrastructure and real estate companies that they use for equity dividend payers, they might actually differentiate. Most real asset ETFs are essentially “buy everything with a physical footprint and hope for the best.” A selective, quality-focused approach would stand out.
The Portfolio Architecture Question
With GAID, GAUD, and GARA joining the existing DIVS (global) and ADIV (Asia Pacific), Guinness Atkinson now offers dividend strategies across virtually every geography and asset class:
- Global: DIVS (35 holdings)
- Asia Pacific: ADIV
- International (ex-US): GAID (coming soon)
- US: GAUD (30 holdings, 43% overlap with DIVS)
- Real Assets: GARA (coming soon)
It's comprehensive. It's segmented. And it creates some interesting choices for portfolio construction.
If you own DIVS: You already have exposure to the thirteen highest-quality US dividend payers that would headline GAUD. Adding GAUD gets you seventeen additional US mid-caps that passed the quality screen domestically.
If you want pure US exposure: GAUD gives you thirty quality dividend growers without the currency risk or international complexity.
If you want to overweight specific regions: The combination of GAUD (US), GAID (international), and ADIV (Asia Pacific) lets you tilt allocations based on your market views.
The strategy makes sense from a distribution perspective. Different advisors have different mandates. Some need pure domestic exposure for client requirements. Others need ex-US for diversification. By offering the full spectrum, Guinness Atkinson positions itself as a one-stop shop for quality dividend strategies.
But the 43% overlap between GAUD and DIVS suggests this isn't about discovering different companies. It's about giving investors optionality in how they construct their dividend exposure. Same rigorous methodology, different geographic lenses.
The Mutual Fund Whisperers
What makes Guinness Atkinson interesting isn't just their dividend obsession (though their 10-year ROC screen is genuinely rigorous). It's their track record of actually innovating in fund structure. They were first to convert mutual funds to ETFs. They partner with SmartETFs for distribution. They focus on concentrated, high-conviction portfolios (30-35 stocks, equally weighted) rather than closet indexing.
The firm clearly believes in active management, but they also embrace the ETF wrapper's transparency and tax efficiency. It's a combination that should be more common but somehow isn't, probably because most active managers would rather preserve their mystique than show you their entire portfolio every day.
The ticker choices are pleasantly straightforward: GAID for international, GAUD for US, GARA for real assets. Easy to remember, hard to confuse. Someone in marketing actually thought about the investor experience, which is refreshingly rare.
What We're Watching
These three new ETFs should launch on US exchanges shortly. The key questions:
1. Does GAID plus GAUD equal DIVS? Or are there selection differences beyond just geography?
2. What exactly constitutes “Real Assets" in GARA? MLPs? REITs? Infrastructure? Timberland? And can they maintain the same quality threshold with these asset classes?
3. Will advisors use these as building blocks or prefer the simplicity of DIVS? The overlap between GAUD and DIVS suggests some redundancy if you're constructing a global portfolio from components.
The timing is solid. Dividend strategies have been out of favour during the growth stock mania, which means they're not priced for perfection. Real assets have demonstrated their worth as inflation hedges. And investor appetite for income generation remains robust, particularly as “higher for longer" rates make yield more attractive.
Guinness Atkinson hasn't issued a press release yet, but the tickers are live in the system and we've seen the portfolio compositions. GAUD holds thirty US dividend growers, with 43% overlap with their existing global strategy. The structures are being built. Soon GAID, GAUD, and GARA will join the SmartETFs family.
Just another case of an active manager who made history with mutual fund conversions deciding that the logical next step is offering investors maximum flexibility in how they access quality dividend strategies – even if that means some intentional overlap with their existing products.
The dividend revolution continues, now with more geographic optionality and a real assets twist.
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