Income investors who have dismissed publicly-traded alternative asset managers because of their inconsistent payouts might want to reconsider: Many of these companies have shifted their policies to focus more on steady dividend payments.

Companies in this universe — such as Apollo Global Management and Carlyle Group — traditionally paid variable dividends as their performance fees bounced around from quarter to quarter and made it hard to fund consistent payouts. Another company in this group, Blackstone Group, most recently issued quarterly dividends of 49 cents a share, 48 cents, 37 cents, and 58 cents.