Financial stocks, which used to be great dividend investments, have had their share of troubles over the past two years. The sector has rebounded sharply since hitting its lows in March. Since the major dividend growth stories of the past such as Bank of America (BAC) and US Bancorp (USB) have cut dividends, most dividend growth investors seem to have a very low allocation to the sector. As a result dividend investors could suffer inferior risk adjusted returns in the future since they won't own any financial stocks.

There are several alternatives for investors who are underweight the financial sector right now. One of them involves purchasing shares in some of US insurance companies such as Aflac (AFL) or Chubb (CB), which offer decent yields and have a long history of dependable dividend growth.

Another alternative is buying shares in the five major Canadian banks, which seem to have escaped the financial meltdown. While none of them have increased their dividends in over one year, they have not cut them either. In addition to that major Canadian banks spot very decent yields as well. It is important to check individual payout ratios in order to gauge the sustainability of the dividend payments.