He also likes Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ), thanks to its army of retail brokers and its stakes in investment manager BlackRock (nyse: BLK - news - people ) and in Bloomberg, the financial information giant.

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The firm generates cash to cover obligations 17 times over, a fact that gives BLK the wherewithal for a dividend hike in the near-term.

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Merrill was also mulling the sale of a piece of investment manager BlackRock (nyse: BLK - news - people ), in which it owns a 49.0% share, but no deal appears imminent.

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Among the names floating about in recent days is Laurence Fink, head of the investment management firm BlackRock (nyse: BLK - news - people ), which took over Merrill Lynch Investment Management earlier this year in return for giving Merrill a 49% stake.

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Fleming, a Merrill veteran who helped negotiate the firm's half-interest in mutual fund giant BlackRock (nyse: BLK - news - people ).

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Such a move could only bring MSCI closer to BlackRock ( BLK) and iShares, which accounted for 8.1% of MSCI revenue in 2011.

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Despite this criticism, I remain a deep believer in ETFs: ETF providers such as Vanguard and Blackrock (NYSE:BLK) greatly benefited retail investors by giving them access to most asset classes at almost no cost.

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According to a survey of 1, 117 clients of BlackRock ( BLK), nearly 40% of institutional investors are now using ETFs for core allocations, particularly in U.S. domestic and international equity.

FORBES: Institutional Use of ETFs Keeps Growing