Some Dividend Funds Are Shams — But These 5 Always Deliver

I know it's a shocker to think there are sharks on Wall Street simply looking
for a group of sucker investors to make them a quick buck. But sometimes the
gall or silliness of these stock market charlatans is almost too much to bear.
This morning, while doing some research into dividend ETFs and income mutual
funds, I encountered a disturbing fact: Many so-called dividend funds actually
are heavily invested in stocks that pay a dividend of less than 1% with some
not paying a penny in dividends at all. In this volatile market, many investors
are running for cover in income investments and safe-haven dividend stocks with
high yield. (Personally, I think this is a wise move and I recently highlighted
my 5 top picks for great returns and great dividends ). But before you jump into
a random dividend fund, take note: At some ETFs or mutual funds, the top
holdings are far from true dividend stocks, regardless of what the strategy or
the manager claims. Check out the very suspect makeup of the Fidelity Dividend
Growth Fund (MUFT: FDGFX ) for a cautionary tale. This big-time Fidelity mutual
fund has almost $8.5 billion under management. But top holdings in this fund
include Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ), which doesn't pay a dime in dividends, and
toxic bank Citigroup (NYSE: C ) which pays a mere penny per quarter for a
whopping 0.1% yield. Another great member of this fund's top 10 holdings is
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL ), with a yield of about 0.8%. When your dividend
investment is chasing tech stocks and toxic banks with paltry yields, you know
something is fishy. Income investors should be very wary of FDGFX and other fake
income funds like it. So where can investors turn to find great income in ETFs
if some so-called dividend funds are just engaging in false advertising? Here
are five good choices: The Guggenheim Multi-Asset Income ETF (NYSE: CVY )