American business magnate John Rockefeller famously remarked: ‘Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.’

While you can now get more than 3% interest on a fixed-rate cash savings account, it is still possible to get a much bigger rate of income via dividends from investment products.

In fact, you can get double the current best-buy savings account – which is 3.5% from Aldermore for a five-year term – via a type of investment fund that goes under the banner of ‘income maximiser’.

TARGETING 7% YIELD

Fund managers Kevin Murphy and Nick Kirrage target a 7% yield from Schroder Income Maximiser Fund (B53FRD8), which was launched in November 2005 and has attracted over £723 million of assets under management.

They invest in a concentrated portfolio of high yielding equities. The managers trade options on these stocks to top up the yield to something higher than you’d typically find on a traditional equity income fund.

Options are contracts that give the buyer the right – but not the obligation – to buy or sell the underlying asset at a specific price on or before a certain date. Schroders’ contracts typically run for three months.

Murphy explains: ‘Part of the process is to effectively sell the capital appreciation in stocks and switch it for income.’ The fund gets an upfront fee for writing the option, although if the share price finishes above the strike price the fund misses out on the excess gain.

STANDING UP TO CRITICS

Critics of income maximiser funds argue they sacrifice tomorrow’s growth to pay today’s income.

The use of options (a form of derivatives) creates immediate income for investors at a higher rate than the dividend income paid on the underlying shares, but it means some of the long-term growth is potentially given away.

However, income maximiser funds are ideally suited to bear markets. According to Schroders, the investment strategy may underperform a similar portfolio without derivatives in periods when stock prices are rising and outperform when the underlying stock prices are falling.

A SECOND FUND WITH THE SAME APPROACH

Fidelity Enhanced Income Fund (B87HPZ9) is another ‘income maximiser’-type investment product. It aims to deliver an income at least 50% more than the income generated from the FTSE All-Share index. Based on income payments over the past 12 months, the yield on the fund is 5.8%.

On a five and 10-year basis the Fidelity fund has generated annualised returns of 3.2% and 5.3% respectively, below that of the Schroders fund (3.8% and 7.2% respectively), according to Morningstar data.

Schroders currently has financials as its largest sector bet with a 25.7% allocation, followed by consumer products at 25.4% and basic materials (which covers the mining and packaging industries) at 19.9%.

In contrast Fidelity has prioritised the consumer products sector with a 27.7% weighting. Financials account for 14.7% of the fund and basic materials at 13%.

ANOTHER ROUTE TO HIGH YIELD

An alternative to income maximiser funds can be found in CQS New City High Yield (NCYF) which makes high-yield investments to generate a superior level of income. It yields 8.6% based on the four most recent quarterly dividend payments and the latest share price.

Most of the investment trust’s portfolio is focused on fixed-interest securities, with a select few high yielding stocks on top. Financials and real assets currently account for a large part of the portfolio.

Its ongoing charge at 1.26% is much higher than the two income maximiser funds discussed in this article – 0.85% from the Fidelity fund and 0.91% from the Schroders fund.

CQS New City High Yield has achieved 4.4% annualised returns over five years and 6.3% over 10 years, according to Morningstar.

Its current top holdings include debt security on Stonegate Pub which is yielding 8.25% and shares in natural gas producer Diversified Energy (DEC).

Stonegate is the UK’s largest pub company. It was originally formed in 2010 with 333 sites and now operates around 4,800 managed, leased and tenanted pubs.

Diversified Energy operates natural gas and oil wells that are primarily located in the Appalachian Basin in the US, where it describes itself as being one of the largest independent conventional producers.

The company has a low cost of production, which in theory means it is well positioned to withstand any fall in the oil price and still pay generous dividends, currently yielding 10.5% based on forecasts for 2022.

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