By Teresa Rivas

In today’s low-yield environment, dividend-paying stocks have become increasingly popular, but even without near-zero interest rates, there are plenty of reasons to seek them out—from the fact that dividends get more favorable tax treatment to the fact that dividend-paying stocks have historically outperformed .

However, Morningstar’s Christine Benz has a new report (subscription required) out today, discussing that income-seeking investors need to do their homework before buying a fund that specializes in dividends.

Of course, an investor’s first question should be about fees—a fund with high expense ratios will eat away at the cash that investors get from dividend payouts.

Yet she also notes that funds like the Vanguard Dividend Growth  (VDIGX ) and the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation  (VIG ), while fine core holdings, tend to focus on companies that have the potential to raise their dividends over the long term, meaning that their current yield is often not far above the S&P 500 in general. So investors that need richer payouts now need to look elsewhere.

Instead, Benz writes that after sifting through Morningstar’s medalist funds with yields above 2% that didn’t have more than 10% of their holdings in bonds and other assets, there were three standouts:

AllianzGI NFJ Dividend Value  (NFJEX )

While some dividend-rich sectors look expensive to Morningstars equity analysts right nownotably real estate and utilitiesthis Silver-rated funds focus on not overpaying for higher-yielding stocks should hold it in good stead in the years ahead. In fact, senior analyst Katie Rushkewicz Reichart notes that its stakes in utilities and real estate are ultralow relative to its large-value peers. Lead manager Ben Fischer is also among the longest-tenured managers running a dividend-focused fund, with an identical share class dating back to 1989, and hes backed by a deep team. Note that the fund may carry a sales charge for some investors, and that the yield on the A shares falls below our 2% threshold.

American Funds Washington Mutual  (AWSHX )

The sole Gold-rated fund on our list of dividend achievers, Washington Mutual is about as old school as it gets. It invests 95% of its assets in dividend-paying companiesideally, those with long histories of paying dividendsand targets a higher dividend yield than the S&P 500. Among companies that clear its dividend hurdles, management looks for quality; thus, its not surprising that 93% of the companies in the portfolio have either wide or narrow economic moats, according analyst Alec Lucas. The A shares carry a sales charge for some investors, but their expense ratio is a low 0.60%, which means that a high percentage of its dividends flow through to shareholders.

Vanguard Value Index  (VIVAX )

Three Vanguard funds made the cut for our screen, including the venerable Equity-Income  (VEIPX ) and Windsor II  (VWNFX )  funds, both actively managed vehicles. That underscores the relationship between yield and expense ratios, as Vanguard funds are consistently inexpensive relative to their peers. Vanguard Value Index isnt explicitly yield-focused, but its low expense ratio means it can deliver a strong yield all the same. The index it tracks is straightforward: It includes the cheapest, slow-growing half of large caps in the U.S. market. Thus, the fund includes a fair amount of blend exposure and may be redundant with other core-type holdings in investors portfolios.