Simply Safe Dividends
Analyst-set 0–100 dividend safety scores on US stocks and CEFs, with a tracker attached.
Best for US income investors who want an analyst's judgement of how likely each holding's dividend is to be cut, applied across their own portfolio; not for non-US shares, a monthly plan, or anyone who wants a tracker without paying for research.
Last updated
What it is
Simply Safe Dividends is a dividend research service with a portfolio tracker attached. The product it is known for is the Dividend Safety Score: a 0–100 rating of each covered company's or closed-end fund's risk of cutting its dividend, assigned by analysts rather than a formula. The service was started in 2015 by Brian Bollinger, a CPA and former equity analyst, and is bootstrapped with a team of four. The financial data behind the scores is delivered daily by S&P.
The tracker applies those scores to what you hold: how much of your income is Safe, Borderline or Unsafe, an income calendar for the next 30 days and the year ahead, a forecast of future income from your holdings' dividend-growth history with options for reinvestment and contributions, and an email with the analysts' reasoning whenever a score in your portfolio changes. Around it sit stock and CEF screeners, valuation charts against a five-year average yield, S&P credit ratings and 10-year financial charts.
Pricing
One plan: $468 a year, displayed as $39 a month billed annually. No monthly option, no discounts, a 14-day trial with no card and a 60-day refund for first-time subscribers. There is no free tier once the trial ends.
Data & coverage
Scores cover about 1,000 US companies and closed-end funds; the vendor's 2020 review rated 1,313 companies. The tracker holds US stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds and CDs. Nothing is said about non-US listings, and none are scored. Prices are described as "near real time" without a named feed.
Integrations
You connect a brokerage account, import a spreadsheet or type holdings in, per the vendor's own December 2022 walkthrough; bonds and CDs come through from connected accounts. The aggregator is not named. The holdings table can be exported. No API.
Limitations
- US only. A global portfolio gets scores on its US half.
- Annual billing only, at a price several times that of a tracker without research.
- The headline 97% — 925 of 946 cuts since 2015 came from names scored below 60 — is a hit rate on cuts. It says nothing of how often a low score was a false alarm, and the vendor's own 2020 table shows that roughly half of the Very Unsafe group kept paying.
- The scores are an analyst's judgement, updated by people on a quarterly cycle; between reviews a score can lag the news.
- The subscription bundles a quarterly newsletter with model portfolios and "best income ideas". That half of the bundle is stock selection, which this catalogue does not cover; the card lists the product for the scores, the screeners and the tracker.
Alternatives
Snowball Analytics has a computed dividend rating, 70+ exchanges and a free plan. DividendMax forecasts future payments for UK and European shares rather than scoring cut risk.
Specs
- Interfaces
- none
- Export
- —
- Asset classes
- Stocks, ETF, Mutual funds, Bonds
- Markets
- US
- Platforms
- Web
- AI features
- None
- Capabilities
- Screening, Portfolio tracking, Broker import, Alerts
- Pricing verified
- Capabilities verified
Also worth comparing
- DividendMax — Analyst dividend forecasts for UK, European and US shares, with an income planner on top.
- Digrin — A dividend-growth tracker with a long CSV import list and Trading 212 or IBKR sync.
- Dividend Watch — A dividend tracker with per-holding withholding rates, DRIP marking and broker sync.
- DivvyDiary — A personal dividend calendar and forward income figure, built around German brokers.
- Snowball Analytics — A dividend calendar and forward-income projection wrapped around a portfolio tracker.
- Stock Events — A dividend and earnings calendar wrapped around your holdings, phone first.
FAQ
What is a Dividend Safety Score?
A 0–100 rating of how likely a company's or closed-end fund's dividend is to be cut, set by Simply Safe Dividends' analysts from payout ratios, debt, recession performance, dividend history, cyclicality, free cash flow and forward estimates. Below 21 is Very Unsafe, 61 and up is Safe. Scores are reviewed at least after each quarterly report.
Do Dividend Safety Scores actually predict cuts?
The vendor publishes its own record. Since 2015, 925 of 946 cuts came from companies scored below 60. The other direction matters too, and its own 2020 table shows it — 49% of the Very Unsafe group did not cut that year. A low score flags risk; it is not a forecast that a cut will happen.
Can I pay for Simply Safe Dividends monthly?
No. There is one plan at $468 a year, shown on the pricing page as $39 a month billed annually, and the FAQ says the vendor offers annual subscriptions only and no discounts. There is a 14-day trial without a card and a 60-day money-back guarantee for first-time subscribers.
Does Simply Safe Dividends cover non-US stocks?
Not in the scores. The ratings cover about 1,000 US companies and closed-end funds, and the tracker is described as analysing U.S. stocks, funds, bonds and CDs. A non-US holding gets no safety score.