A dividend aristocrat is a very special thing. It is typically defined as a dividend share that has increased its annual dividend payouts to investors every year for at least 25 years.

Such a long and steady track record shows that a company is financially stable and strong enough to fork out such a large volume of cash consistently.

Over on the US markets, there are many dividend aristocrats. Some you might have heard of include Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT), Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE: XOM), and McDonald's Corp (NYSE: MCD).

What's more, is that the US markets also boast quite a few dividend kings. These fabled royals of the share market have a 50-year streak of annually raising their dividends. This list is a lot smaller but includes Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO), Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE: CL), and Altria Group Inc (NYSE: MO).

Does the ASX offer any dividend aristocrats?

Unfortunately, here on the ASX, we have no dividend aristocrats by the US definition. Let alone dividend kings.

But we do have a couple of ASX dividend heavyweights that come close. And they are two shares that I think any investor could comfortably buy and hold for the long term.

The first is Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW). Brickworks is a building and construction materials company. But it also has a few other earning streams, including from its lucrative property business.

Brickworks has a strong dividend track record. It hasn't raised its dividend for 25 consecutive years, so we can't call it an official dividend aristocrat.

But what it does have is a 45-year history of not cutting its dividends. In other words, Brickworks has either maintained or increased its annual dividends every year since 1976. Definity heavyweight material.

Soul Patts: 3 years to go

The second is Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co Ltd (ASX: SOL).

Soul Patts is the closest thing to a dividend aristocrat the ASX has. No, Soul Patts hasn't quite got to 25 years of annual dividend raises. But it has upped its annual dividend every year since 2000. That means it's only three years away from becoming the ASX's first dividend aristocrat.

Soul Patts is a rather interesting company. It functions more as a listed investment company (LIC) than a traditional ASX business, owning large chunks of other ASX shares in a massive investment portfolio.

This it runs for the benefit of its shareholders. Soul Patts' largest holdings include TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG), New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC), and Brickworks itself.

But Soul Patts also owns a large and diversified portfolio of ASX 200 shares, thanks to the acquisition of ASX LIC Milton Corporation last year. These include your typical ASX holdings like BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA).

Both of these would-be ASX dividend aristocrats have a long history of delivering meaningful returns to their shareholders. And both boast unrivalled dividend records on the ASX, if not yet long enough to qualify for the 'dividend aristocrat' tag.

As such, Soul Pattss and Brickworks are two ASX dividend heavyweights that I would happily buy and hold until retirement and beyond.

The post 2 ASX 200 dividend heavyweights to buy and hold until you retire appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Last week, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) saw something rather rare – a new top 50 company join it out of the blue.

That's what happened when Endeavour Group Ltd (ASX: EDV) hit the ASX boards for the first time.

Spun out of Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW), Endeavour is the old drinks business of Woolies. It owns the Dan Murphy's and BWS bottle shop chains, as well as a number of licensed establishments, mostly in Queensland.

It might not be the only ASX 200 blockbuster demerger that 2021 will see, either.

Earlier this week, we learned that AGL Energy Limited (ASX: AGL) is also advancing plans for its own spin-off.

The (relatively ancient by ASX standards) company is planning on dividing down the middle. Its energy retailing business will remain 'AGL' and its generation business will separate into 'Accel Energy'.

ASX sees a deluge of ESG-driven splits

Investors are already speculating about what the future holds for these two companies.

One thing they have in common is their unappealing nature from an ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) perspective.

Ethical investors who assess ESG criteria for their investments are not usually enchanted with businesses like AGL or Endeavour — companies that help burn coal for electricity (AGL/Accel) and sell alcohol (Endeavour).

As such, it's not likely that either of these companies will be cropping up in any ASX ethical ETFs.

In a report in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) this week, a number of fund managers stated that investors should prepare for a 'permanent discount' in the Endeavour share price due to these concerns.

Sage Capital portfolio manager, Sean Fenton told the AFR: "There are some investors who aren't going to invest in companies with alcohol and gaming.".

So, should investors interested in AGL or Endeavour just not bother?

Ethical or non-ethical… Does it even matter?

Well, let's look to what many would consider an unsavoury company for some answers.

Altria Group Inc (NYSE: MO) is a tobacco giant that's better known by its former name, Philip Morris. It's the company behind the infamous 'Marlboro Man' ads of yesteryear.

Now, we've known about the dangers of tobacco use since the 1960s. Thus, in subsequent decades, many investors have shunned Altria shares over ethical concerns.

This lead to the company having a low share price relative to its earnings for much of this period.

However, these ethical concerns did nothing to damage Altria's success from an investing standpoint.

As our Fool colleagues over in the US pointed out a couple of years ago, Altria has been one of the best-performing stocks of all time since its initial public offering (IPO) back in 1938.

Here's some of what our US colleagues wrote about the company:

A dollar invested in Altria in 1968 turned into $6,638 by 2015 with dividends reinvested, good for a 663,700% total return, or 20.6% annually.

Bad ethics don't mean bad returns

This situation has also been discussed by The Motley Fool's chief investment officer, Scott Phillips.

If a company is trading relatively cheaply compared to its earnings, and its earnings are still growing, that can be a very powerful foundation for good investment.

For investors who reinvested Altria's ever-growing dividends (it has grown its dividend for more than 50 years), it has been an even more spectacular performer. ESG or no ESG.

No one can deny the moral dilemma of investing in a company that is doing ethically questionable business.

There's nothing wrong with deciding a company isn't a good investment for you because of its values or practices. Just don't confuse ethics with potential performance capability.

Altria's history proves that a company can be both subjectively unsavoury and a good investment. The same could prove true with either Endeavour or Accel Energy.

The post Will ESG concerns really affect companies like Endeavour (ASX:EDV) and AGL (ASX:AGL)? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can be a great way to easily boost your ASX share portfolios diversification. That's because an ETF can hold dozens, hundreds or even thousands of underlying shares within it. As such, you are technically adding exposure to all such shares when you buy a single ETF.

The most popular ASX ETFs on the market today are index funds – those that track a broad-market benchmark like the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) However, there are others out there that could prove even better for diversification purposes. Here are 2 such funds:

iShares Global Consumer Staples ETF (ASX: IXI)

This ETF from iShares invests in a basket of companies that all dwell within the consumer staples sector. Consumer staples are goods or services that we humans tend to need, rather than want. As such, companies that sell food, drinks, household essentials and other life basics make up most of the holdings of this ETF. 'Sin stocks' that manufacture vices like alcohol and tobacco are also included. The appeal of this sector rests on this 'essential nature'. Companies that sell consumer staples are arguably likelier to be resistant to recessions, inflation and other economic troubles. That's simply because they are the last things that people tend to stop buying in times of trouble.

This iShares ETF invests in a global basket of more than 90 of these companies. Most of its holdings hail from the United States, with names like the Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO), Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE: CL), Altria Group Inc (NYSE: MO) and Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT). But there are other geographies represented too, including our own with the inclusion of Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) and the A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M).

This ETF charges a management fee of 0.46% per annum.

BetaShares Global Cybersecurity Etf (ASX: HACK)

This ETF from BetaShares invests in an area that's a little different. Cybersecurity is arguably one of the most important industries of the 21st century, and will likely only grow in importance as more and more 'stuff' is done online. That's the trend that this ETF tries to capture.

HACK invests in a basket of global companies all dedicated to cybersecurity efforts. Like IXI, many of its holdings are from the USA. But there is still some representation from Israel, Britain and Japan here too. Some of this fund's top holdings include names like Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO), CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CRWD), Zscaler Inc (NASDAQ: ZS) and Cloudflare Inc (NYSE: NET).

HACK charges a management fee of 0.67% per annum.

The post 2 ETFs that could be buys today for any ASX share portfolio appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.