ISPA and VHYL are the two dividend funds in Kledon's universe, and they are far less alike than the shared "global dividend" label suggests — their top ten holdings have not one name in common. For most Euro investors VHYL is the better default: cheaper, Irish-domiciled, and far broader. ISPA earns the extra 17 basis points for one specific reason, and if that reason doesn't apply to you, you're overpaying.
What they share
Both throw out plain market-cap weighting and screen a developed-world equity universe for dividend yield instead. Both replicate physically — the issuer buys the underlying shares rather than using swaps. Both distribute the income to you as cash instead of accumulating it inside the wrapper, which makes both of them tax events every year whether you want the cash or not. And both are flat at the top: no megacap dominates either basket, which is the mechanical consequence of screening for yield in a market led by companies that pay little of it.
If what you want is spendable income from global equities, either fund does that job. The choice is about cost, tax path, and what you already own.
Where they differ
Start with cost, because it's the simplest number and it does point one way.
ISPA charges 0.46%; VHYL charges 0.29%. On a €50k position that's €230 against €145 a year — an €85 gap, on the higher-fee side of what a passive equity ETF should cost either way. It's real money and it compounds, but it isn't the reason to pick one over the other. What's inside is.
VHYL tracks the FTSE All-World High Dividend Yield Index and holds 2,368 stocks. ISPA tracks the STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 and holds 100. That's not a rounding difference in methodology — it's two different ideas. VHYL screens out the low-yielders and keeps essentially everything else, weighted by size. ISPA takes the hundred highest-yielding names in the developed world and weights them close to evenly. One is a broad market with a filter; the other is a concentrated bet on yield itself. Vanguard's product page has the full index detail.
The holdings show what that does in practice:
| Ticker | Name | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| LGEN | Legal & General Group plc | 2.13% |
| 1308 | SITC International Holdings Co | 1.94% |
| AKRBP | Aker BP ASA | 1.92% |
| TEP | Teleperformance SE | 1.92% |
| LIGHT | Signify NV | 1.83% |
| Ticker | Name | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| XOM | Exxon Mobil Corp. | 1.79% |
| JPM | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 1.75% |
| JNJ | Johnson & Johnson | 1.47% |
| CVX | Chevron Corp. | 0.97% |
| ABBV | AbbVie, Inc. | 0.96% |
Every one of VHYL's ten largest holdings is American — Exxon, JPMorgan, Johnson & Johnson, Chevron, AbbVie, Procter & Gamble, Home Depot, Cisco, Merck, Coca-Cola. Not one of ISPA's is. ISPA's top ten is British, Dutch, Nordic, French, Australian and Asian: Legal & General, SITC, Aker BP, Teleperformance, Signify, Taylor Wimpey, Aegon, Woodside, WH Group, Investec. Two funds, the same stated purpose, zero overlap at the top.
The concentration numbers point the other way from what you'd guess. ISPA's top ten is 17.77% of the fund against VHYL's 10.87%, so the hundred-stock fund is the more concentrated one — though neither has a single-name problem: ISPA's largest position is 2.13% and VHYL's is 1.79%. ISPA's concentration is country and sector instead, in European financials, insurers and energy.
Currency and listing differ too, and this one is easy to over-read. ISPA trades on Xetra in EUR; VHYL, as we track it, is the LSE line in USD. That affects the conversion your broker charges you at the till, nothing more — your real FX exposure follows the underlying basket, not the share-class label. On that measure it's VHYL that carries more dollar risk, because its basket is US-dominated, while ISPA's is mostly not.
Finally, cadence: VHYL pays quarterly, and has done since its 21 May 2013 inception. ISPA has the longer live record — it launched in 2009 and has run through more than one full dividend cycle, including a financial crisis and a pandemic.
Live data temporarily unavailable for this comparison.
Who each one is for
Buy VHYL if you want global dividend income and you don't want to think about it much further. It's cheaper at 0.29%, Irish-domiciled so the tax path is the familiar one, and broad enough at 2,368 names that you're not making a side bet on a hundred specific companies. The one thing you should be clear-eyed about: its top end is entirely US large-cap value, so if you already hold a US-heavy core, VHYL diversifies your sector mix much more than your country mix.
Buy ISPA if that last sentence is the problem you're trying to solve. It is the only fund here that gives you a genuinely non-US income stream — European and Asia-Pacific value, flat-weighted, no US-tech adjacency at all. You pay 0.46% for it and you take on a German domicile, so it only makes sense as a deliberate ex-US tilt after you've checked the tax treatment. As an accidental default it's the wrong choice.
If neither argument lands, that's a real answer too: you may not want an income fund at all. An accumulating market-cap all-world like VWCE does the compounding job for a fraction of either fee, and defers the tax event until you sell — which is the better trade while you're still building.