You can model a cash dividend as a corporate action of type CashDividendEvent in LUSID. See all supported corporate actions.
Note the following:
CashDividendEventis valid for instruments of typeEquity,SimpleInstrumentandFundShareClass.The entitlement date is the
exDatespecified when you loadCashDividendEvent, notrecordDate.The dividend amount is calculated from the total number of instrument units held on the entitlement date, settled and unsettled.
The transaction date of the automatically-generated output transaction is
exDate, and the settlement date ispaymentDate.
Recommended tutorial: Handling a cash dividend corporate action
Loading CashDividendEvent
You must load CashDividendEvent into a corporate action source registered with one or more portfolios. The event then impacts every portfolio with a holding in the underlying instrument. See how to do this.
For more information on fields, see the CashDividendEvent schema. Where set, the following date validation rules apply:announcementDate ≤ exDate ≤ recordDate ≤ paymentDate
You must choose one of the following participation types:
Participation type | Election(s) | Election choices | Further action required? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exactly one | Set the following on the single election: | |
| At least one | The above options must be set but can be in any combination on any election. |
Note there is no silent lapse outcome; a holder who takes no action always receives the chosen currency rather than forfeiting the dividend.
Instructing to receive a different currency per portfolio
If you load CashDividendEvent as MandatoryWithChoices, you can instruct to receive the dividend in a different currency. If you do not, you receive the chosen election currency.
To do this, load an event instruction into a portfolio. Note this is not an event, and you do not load it into a corporate action source, which means you can instruct differently in different portfolios. See how to do this.
Configuring the economic impact
You must create a DividendIncome transaction type to handle the automatically-generated output transaction. This is not provided for you. See our recommendation.
You can give a transaction type any economic impact you like. Our recommendation:
Creates or updates a cash holding in the chosen currency.
Reports the cash as income using the
ProfitAndLoss/Total/Othermetric.Does not change the units and cost of the underlying instrument, so
ProfitAndLoss/Realised/*andProfitAndLoss/Unrealised/*metrics are unchanged.
Reference example
[
{
"instrumentEventId": "MSCashDividend-2026-08-15",
"instrumentIdentifiers": {
"Instrument/default/Figi": "BBG000BPH459"
},
"description": "Cash dividend of 20 cents per Microsoft share, paid in GBP by default",
"participationType": "MandatoryWithChoices",
"instrumentEvent": {
"instrumentEventType": "CashDividendEvent",
"announcementDate": "2026-08-01T00:00:00.0000000+00:00",
"exDate": "2026-08-15T00:00:00.0000000+00:00",
"recordDate": "2026-08-16T00:00:00.0000000+00:00",
"paymentDate": "2026-09-01T00:00:00.0000000+00:00",
"cashElections": [
{
"electionKey": "USDollar",
"dividendCurrency": "USD",
"dividendRate": "0.20",
"isDeclared": "True",
"isDefault": "True",
"isChosen": "False"
},
{
"electionKey": "GreatBritishPounds",
"dividendCurrency": "GBP",
"exchangeRate": "0.79",
"isDeclared": "False",
"isDefault": "False",
"isChosen": "True"
},
{
"electionKey": "Euro",
"dividendCurrency": "EUR",
"exchangeRate": "1.08",
"isDeclared": "False",
"isDefault": "False",
"isChosen": "False"
}
]
}
}
]