The Dividend Investing Resource Center
Discover how Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIPs) can amplify your investment portfolio by automatically reinvesting company dividends into additional shares.
By leveraging the power of compounding, you can escalate your shareholdings over time.
What is dividend investing?
Dividend investing is a means of building wealth over a long period of time with reduced risk.
Many brokers offer fee-free purchases and reinvestments and the ability to reinvest fractional shares.
Dividend investing is for the long term buy-and-hold type investor who wants to sleep at night while their investments steadily build.
What is DRIP?
The term DRIP is an abbreviation for dividend reinvestment plans, which offer investors the opportunity to reinvest all, or a portion, of their dividend payments back into a company’s stock. Oftentimes, companies will allow investors to purchase additional shares of stock through these programs too.
What is DRIP investing?
Dividend reinvestment plans are sponsored by companies that allow individual investors to purchase common stock without going through a broker. The name comes from the plan’s policy of allowing the investor to automatically reinvest dividends to purchase additional shares of stock.
Many DRIPs are offered to investors free of any participation costs, while others charge relatively small administration fees or commissions. While the name implies these plans are limited to reinvesting stock dividends, some plans allow participants to directly purchase a company’s stock. This enhanced practice is sometimes referred to as optional cash purchases or OCPs.
Advantages of DRIP
A large number of companies offer dividend reinvestment programs, and participation rules are usually outlined in the investor section of the company’s website. Since these plans are flexible enough to allow even small purchases without a broker’s fee, it’s hard to find any downside to these offerings. In fact, there are several significant advantages of these programs including:
Low cost of entry
Investors don’t need a lot of money to enroll in these programs.
Most companies allow the purchase of just a single share of stock, and often this purchase is at a discount.
Cost-effective
Since the investor isn’t paying brokerage fees, all of the money is put to work.
Over 100 companies allow investors to purchase stock at a discount to the current market price through optional cash purchase plans, or OCPs.
DCA
Finally, many of the DRIPs allow investors to purchase stock through automated weekly or monthly deductions.
This long-term purchase strategy provides the investor with a less painful, and more structured, approach to buying stocks.
For beginners
Getting started
Starting with DRIP investing is simple. It’s about making small, regular investments grow over time, just like how Coca-Cola started. Here, we’ll explain the easy steps from your first dividend to picking a DRIP plan that fits you. Let’s get those dividends to build up your savings.
Participating in the DRIP
Generally, there are three ways investors can participate in dividend reinvestment plans: company-run plans, transfer agent plans, and brokerage plans
Company run plans
Many companies run these programs through their investor relations or shareholder services departments. Several companies have even started to offer Individual Retirement Accounts in addition to their reinvestment plans.
Companies may have participation rules that include owning at least one share prior to joining the dividend reinvestment plan. They may also require the stock to be in the investor’s name rather than street name.
A phone call to the shareholder services department is an effective way to learn about company-specific participation rules.
Transfer agent plans
Due to the overwhelming popularity of some DRIPs, companies may engage the help of transfer agents to administer their programs. The transfer agent is a third-party broker that typically runs plans for many different companies.
Since the transfer agent is running multiple programs using the same resources, they can do it more cost-effectively than some of the issuing companies.
Some of the larger transfer agents include American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, Mellon Investor Services, and ComputerShare.
Brokerage plans
While dividend reinvestment programs reduce the fees collected by traditional brokerage houses, many of these firms now attempt to mirror DRIPs by offering the ability to reinvest dividends without charging a fee.
Unfortunately, these plans usually lack the most attractive feature of a real DRIP: The cash purchase of new shares of stock without fees.
More on DRIP brokersStrategies
Dividend investing strategies
Learn about Dividend Investing Strategies in a way that’s easy to understand. This section will show you how to pick good stocks that pay dividends and make a plan to earn regular income from them. Get ready to grow your money smarter.
dividend champions
Future dividend champions
Meet the Future Dividend Champions. These companies are on track to becoming top picks for investors who love getting regular dividend payments. In this section, we’ll show you why these stocks stand out and how they could help give your investments a boost over time. Start exploring which one might be the champion for your portfolio.
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Dividend champions spreadsheet
Dividend champions are companies that have consistently raised their dividends each year for multiple years in a row.
Use our Dividend Champions spreadsheet for the latest list of dividend champions, contenders, and challengers.
Updated monthly on the 1st.
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Resources for the dividend investor
Fill your investor’s toolbox with our handpicked list of easy-to-read books. If you’re just starting or already know a lot about investing, these books are full of tips and advice to help you make money with dividends. Check out our favorites and learn new ways to improve your investments.
For experts
Deep dive into drip investing
Dive into the world of dividend reinvestment. Find out how to pick stocks that can grow your money and learn easy ways to save on taxes. These articles will help you understand how to make smart choices for building your investments over time.
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