Which Funds Will Pay the Biggest 2026 Capital Gains Distributions?

A handful of strategies will distribute more than 30% in gains later this year.

Stephen Welch Oct 27, 2026

Securities in This Article

It’s capital gains distribution season again. Each year, fund companies provide shareholders with estimates of their potential year-end income and capital gains distributions, giving them a preview of their tax obligations before firms make their payouts.

This has been another strong year for many asset classes. Emerging-market equities have posted robust gains, aided in part by supply constraints in memory chips used to support the ongoing artificial intelligence buildout. The robust gains of some memory stocks like US chipmaker Micron Technology MU that began the year as value stocks helped propel the Russell 1000 Value Index to a more than 20% cumulative gain. Meanwhile, broad US equity benchmarks posted another year of solid returns, advancing about 15%.

Despite strong absolute results, outflows continued to force some actively managed equity funds to sell appreciated holdings to pay off investors leaving for exchange-traded funds and other options, an ongoing trend. Funds must distribute those realized gains, whether long- or short-term, to remaining shareholders. Investors who hold funds in taxable accounts may owe taxes on the distributions, even if they reinvest the proceeds.

Fund families are still releasing their estimates, which they can still revise. But a preliminary look shows many strategies will make sizable distributions. Most firms will pay their distributions between late November and year-end.

Below, we highlight the 50 highest capital gain distribution estimates (as a percentage of each fund’s net asset value, or NAV) followed by a sampling of many larger fund families’ distribution estimates (with links to entire fund family lists).

A common theme among the top 50 funds is outflows. Only 11 funds on the list had less than double-digit outflow percentages so far in 2026. Almost half of the funds had more than 25% of assets in outflows. Nationwide Renaissance Small Cap Growth NWGPX, whose 57% of NAV capital gains distribution tops the list, lost more than 60% of start-of-year assets in outflows as it changed its name and process.

It is important to pay attention to which share class you own. For example, Columbia Select Large Cap Growth’s institutional shares UMLGX are estimated to distribute capital gains amounting to 42% of NAV, while its A shares ELGAX are estimated to pay out roughly 56%. While owners of both share classes are getting paid the same dollar amount per share, the share classes’ different NAVs and different initiation dates lead to the large discrepancy.

MFS has several strategies in the top 50 list. MFS Global’s MWEBX estimated distribution of 37% of NAV was likely the result of outflows of 30% of start-of-year assets from a fund that has posted bottom-quartile results in the past three calendar years. MFS Growth MEGBX, MFS Massachusetts Investors Growth Stock MIGFX, and MFS Value MEIAX also landed in the top 50, each with at least 20% of start-of-year assets in estimated outflows.

A handful of other firms also had several funds in the top 50. Columbia Threadneedle, BNY Mellon, and Principal all had three or more strategies on the list. Most of these were due to flows, but not all.

In some cases, strong market performance has led to sizable distributions. For example, the managers of two of Columbia’s funds, Columbia Seligman Global Technology SHGTX and Columbia Seligman Technology and Information SLMCX, have trimmed some of their big winners, which has affected distributions.

Emerging markets have been another strong area this year. ARGA Emerging Markets Value ARMIX lands in the top five with a roughly 40% distribution.

Other funds have changed their personnel or processes, which could trigger capital gains. For example, Principal Large Cap Growth PLGIX overhauled its subadvisor this year and will likely distribute roughly 27% of NAV.

Top 50

Top 50 Estimated Distributions

Source: Morningstar. Data as of 09/30/2026. Download CSV.

Why You Should Pay Attention to Capital Gains Distribution Estimates

If you invest through a tax-advantaged account such as a 401(k) or IRA and reinvest distributions, capital gains distribution estimates may seem irrelevant. After all, those vehicles allow investors to defer taxes until retirement, and Roth IRAs may help avoid taxes on investment gains and withdrawals.

If you invest in a taxable account, though, you could owe taxes on distributed gains, even if you reinvested them, unless your fund has sold losing holdings to offset the gains.

Reinvested capital gains help increase your cost basis, which could reduce the capital gains taxes you owe when you eventually sell the fund. So, if you hold a serial capital-gains-distributing fund, selling it in the future may cost less than you anticipated, owing to all the cost-basis step-ups that the regular distributions triggered.

Distribution estimates can also be valuable for investors considering a new purchase. Buying a fund shortly before a distribution may result in receiving a taxable payout without having participated in much of the appreciation that generated it. In some cases, delaying a purchase until after the distribution may be the more tax-efficient choice.

Tax considerations, of course, are just one of many factors in an investment decision. Check with a tax advisor before trading to avoid or capture a distribution.

Select Fund Company Distribution Projections

We will update this section with fund company estimates as they become available. For this report, we pulled per-share distribution estimates or percentages from asset manager websites. The dates of asset managers’ estimate releases varied, but we used NAVs as of Sept. 30, 2026, to calculate the distributions as a percent of NAV. When managers released a range rather than a specific number, we used the average value for the calculation.