I happily own a number of high-yield share, earning passive income in the form of dividends.
But, like any shares, high-yield ones carry some risks. Dividends are never guaranteed, after all, and sometimes a high yield can signal City doubts that the shareholder payout will turn out to be sustainable.
FTSE 100: large companies, but still no guarantees
Is there safety in scale?
Some tiny company with a high yield may seem to be risky, but what about a giant like Shell or Vodafone?
The reality is that although the FTSE 100 index contains the nation’s largest listed companies by market capitalisation, that is no guarantee that they will do well or maintain their dividend.
Shell and Vodafone are growing their dividends currently, but both have cut them within the past decade – alongside lots of other FTSE 100 firms.
Still, FTSE 100 firms pay out huge amounts of dividends in total – well over £1bn per week in the first quarter of 2026, in fact.
The index contains some very successful, proven businesses. Not all of them will keep doing well but many will. That could involve them paying out some attractive dividends.
Five high-yield FTSE shares
For example, consider the five highest-yielding shares in the FTSE 100 at the moment.
Legal & General yields 8.6%, Standard Life (LSE: SDLF) 7.3%, Land Securities 6.9%, M&G 6.8%, and Barratt Redrow 6.7%.
At a time when the index overall yields 3.1%, that means that those high-yield shares are all more than twice as lucrative as the FTSE 100.
But will those dividends last?
Housebuilding is suffering from weakening demand in some parts of the market. Barratt Redrow has cut its dividend already this year – and that could be a sign of worse to come, depending on what happens to the housing market.
A serial dividend-raiser
Standard Life faces risks of its own. Its large base of assets includes a mortgage book that, if the property market does decline, could need to have its value written down. That is a risk to earnings.
But the company has a lot of strengths too.
Its long-term savings and retirement business counts around one in five UK adults as a customer. Strong, long-established brands combined with deep financial markets expertise help to establish credibility to attract new clients and retain existing ones.
The retirement-focussed financial services space strikes me as an attractive one to be in (Legal & General is squarely focussed on it too). Demand is large and can involve big sums. It is also likely to be resilient over the long run.
Standard Life’s high dividend yield grabs my attention. So too does its goal of raising the dividend per share each year.
It has managed to do that in recent years and, while there are no guarantees, I believe it could potentially keep doing so. I see it as a share worth considering for investors seeking passive income.
