About & methodology
This started at a kitchen table, not on a trading floor. Robert Kovacs spent years watching ordinary families do everything right, work hard, save what they could, and still end up at the mercy of a market that always seemed built for somebody else. The big money got the research, the access and the benefit of the doubt. The little guy got the fees, the fine print and the cold open on a bad morning. He became convinced there was a better way to build security, one dividend check at a time, and that it should not be a secret.
So he started teaching it. Then his son Sam joined him, and for over a decade the two of them have helped thousands of everyday investors learn to retire on their dividends. A few years ago Ben, Sam's brother and Robert's son, came into the business too. It is a genuine family operation: a father and his two sons, answering to the members they serve rather than to anyone on Wall Street.
That is about as American as it gets. You build something honest, you do right by the people who trust you, you hand it down to your kids, and you give the next person a fair shot at the same independence you found. Dividends are the most patient, least glamorous path to that kind of freedom, and we think everyone deserves the map, not just the clients who can pay for it.
Which brings us to David Fish (RIP). In December 2007 he began publishing the Dividend Champions, Contenders and Challengers, a free, meticulously maintained list of every US company with a long record of annual dividend increases. He shared it openly, updated it every month, and a whole generation of dividend-growth investors grew up on it. He passed away in 2018, and the canonical free list has faded since.
This is an independent homage, not his list and not an endorsement by him or his estate. We revive the idea with our own data: current, computed transparently, extended beyond the US to Canada, Europe and the UK, and free, with a Dividend Safety score on every name. It is built and kept current by the team behind the Dividend Freedom Tribe.
The tiers
- Champions: 25 or more consecutive years of increases.
- Contenders: 10 to 24 years.
- Challengers: 5 to 9 years.
There is no separate "Kings" tier. A 50-year streak is simply a long-streak Champion. REITs and MLPs are included, not split out.
How we count a streak
- 1Home listing, declared currency. A dual-listed company is counted once, on its home listing, in the currency the dividend is declared in, so exchange-rate moves never create a fake raise or a fake cut (we count Bank of Nova Scotia on Toronto in Canadian dollars, not New York in US dollars). Supported currencies: USD, CAD, EUR, GBP.
- 2Split-adjusted, regular dividends only. We use split-adjusted amounts and exclude special one-off dividends, so neither a stock split nor a special payment is mistaken for a change in the regular dividend.
- 3Whole years, compared like-for-like. We total each calendar year's regular dividends and compare a year only against the prior complete year. A year counts as an increase if its total is higher than the one before.
- 4Seeded, then rolled forward. Our data does not reach back forever, so for long-standing raisers we anchor the streak with an authoritative count as of a date, from the David Fish / DRiP archive, the Canadian Dividend All-Star List, published Dividend Kings lists and the like, and extend it with our own data. Every seeded streak shows its source.
- 5A break always wins. If our data shows any year that is not an increase after the anchor, a freeze or a cut, the seed is void and the streak resets. Where we have no anchor and our earliest data is itself already an increase, we show a floor ("54+") rather than invent a start date.
This is a transparent reconstruction, not a copy of any one provider's list. Where our rule or data differ, a number can differ by a year. See the three lists: Champions, Contenders, Challengers.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the Dividend Champions, Contenders and Challengers?
- They are companies that have raised their dividend for a long run of consecutive years. Champions have done it for 25 or more years, Contenders for 10 to 24, and Challengers for 5 to 9. We compute them fresh from our own dividend data across the United States, Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom.
- How do you count a dividend streak?
- On the company's home listing, in the currency the dividend is declared in, using split-adjusted regular dividends only. We compare each complete calendar year against the prior complete year. A year counts as an increase only if its total is higher than the year before.
- Why do some streaks show a plus sign, like 54+?
- Our data does not reach back forever. Where we have an authoritative anchor we seed the streak and roll it forward. Where we do not, and our earliest year is already an increase, we show a floor such as 54+ rather than invent a start date.
- What markets and currencies do you cover?
- The United States, Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom, in USD, CAD, EUR and GBP. Most Champions lists stop at the US border. Ours does not.
- What is the Dividend Safety score?
- A 0 to 100 score estimating how secure the current dividend is, on the same scale as our Dividend Safety Checker. It is shown free on every company, so you can weigh a long streak against the odds it continues.
- Is it really free?
- Yes. Every list, every company page and the weekly digest are free. The paid Dividend Freedom Tribe is a separate, optional service for investors who want model portfolios and deeper research.
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New increases, graduations between tiers, and any streaks that broke. One email a week, always free. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.