Dividends are the investor's best friend.

While companies such as Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon and Google eschew dividends in favor of reinvesting capital, there's no denying that for the rest of the market, dividend distributions are essential for returns.

This Hartford's research isn't the only insight on dividend investing out there, but it does reflect the conclusion all dividend research has concluded: You can't beat the market over the long-term without dividends.

Dividend Underlying Growth Pushes Payouts To All-Time High

Luckily for dividend investors, dividends are now growing at the fastest rate in three years according to Janus Henderson's Global Dividend Index. The index, which analyses dividends paid by the 1,200 largest firms by market capitalization, notes dividends surged 14.5% to $328.1 billion, the fastest headline growth rate in three years and a record for third quarter dividend payments. Meanwhile, underlying growth was 8.4%, the highest level in almost two years with every region reporting growth. For the full-year, the index is predicting a record $1.25 trillion in total dividend payouts, up 7.4% year-on-year in headline terms.

Dividends from UK listed companies grew the fastest during the third quarter, as miners recovered from a multi-year slump and began distributing excess profits to investors. Overall, underlying UK dividends jumped 17.5% in Q3, giving a total of $29.6 billion. Rio Tinto paid its largest interim dividend ever recorded as BHP Billiton trebled its dividend year-on-year