Next-generation dividend heroes: the investment trusts that have consistently raised dividends

One of the biggest advantages of buying investment trusts is their potential to pay reliable dividends.

Unlike other kinds of funds, investment trusts only have to return 85% of capital to shareholders in any given year. Therefore, with skilled management, they can smooth out dividend payments over time, using past reserves to maintain yields even in years when the portfolio struggles; it’s one thing that means they’re often popular choices with DIY investors.

The best-run investment trusts can keep increasing their dividend payments over a long period of time. The Association of Investment Companies (AIC), an industry body that represents investment trusts, keeps tabs on its ‘dividend heroes’ – investment trusts that have increased dividends for twenty or more years in a row.

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It also keeps tabs on those that could be poised to join in due course: so-called ‘next-generation dividend heroes’. These are investment trusts that have increased dividends for between ten and twenty years.

Next-generation dividend heroes: the newcomers

Two new investment trusts have joined the list this year: Foresight Environmental Infrastructure (LON:FGEN) and Utilico Emerging Markets (LON:UEM).

“We are… delighted to have been recognised as part of the next generation of dividend heroes,” said Charlie Wright, co-lead investment manager of Foresight Environmental Infrastructure. “The dividend remains a key attraction for our investors, particularly retail shareholders.”

Foresight Environmental Infrastructure holds 40 private infrastructure assets across three key pillars of environmental infrastructure: renewable energy generation, other energy infrastructure and sustainable resource management.

Of these, the largest component is renewable energy generation, which accounted for 71% of the portfolio at the time of the trust’s half-year report, published November 2025.

“The trust offers investors access to a diversified portfolio of otherwise hard-to-reach private environmental infrastructure assets that deliver stable returns, predictable income and the opportunity for capital growth,” said Wright. As the most diversified renewable energy infrastructure trust on the market, the portfolio is less exposed to volatility that can be caused by extreme weather patterns or fluctuating energy prices.

Utilico Emerging Markets, meanwhile, invests in infrastructure and utilities across emerging market economies. Top holdings as of 28 February include Brazilian waste treatment company Orizon Valorizacao de Residuos, the Philippines’ port operator International Container Terminal Services, and Indian power sector investment trust Indigrid Infrastructure Trust.

“We invest in listed infrastructure and utility companies which are crucial to the growth and development of many emerging markets,” said Jacqueline Broers, co-fund manager of Utilico Emerging Markets. “These companies generate stable, growing cash flows, often underpinned by regulatory frameworks, which supports our ability to pay consistently growing dividends.”

The longest-running next-generation dividend heroes

Two of the trusts on the AIC’s list of 30 are a year away from promotion into the main list of dividend heroes, each boasting 19 consecutive years of increased payouts.

These are Schroder Oriental Income (LON:SOI) and BlackRock Greater Europe (LON:BRGE).

Schroder Oriental focuses on Asian companies with attractive growth and income potential. As of 19 March, it had a dividend yield of 3.28%, and has grown its dividend at an annualised rate of 3.44% over the last five years.

BlackRock Greater Europe focuses on high quality small and large companies in Europe, including some in developing European markets. It has a dividend yield of 1.35% and a five year annualised dividend growth rate of 3.06%.

The full list of next-generation dividend heroes

Below is the full list of all thirty next-generation dividend heroes:

^{Source: AIC / Morningstar. Data at 19/03/26.}

Law Debenture (LON:LWDB) is one of the six current constituents of the MoneyWeek investment trust portfolio, a model we set up over a decade ago to help readers build a global, long-term, “all-weather” set of investments.