Last year I introduced the Stock Ideas list and it has proven to be immensely popular. The list consists of Dividend Aristocrats, US Broad Dividend Achievers and U.S. Dividend Champions. Here are some highlights on this year’s changes:

Not many companies fortunes are as closely tied to the stock market as those in the insurance industry. When the market is climbing, insurers will often soar beyond the market, and will fall harder when the market declines. With the market upturn is now a good time to consider insurance companies?

If you put a band aid on a gaping wound and tell the person that they are going to be all right, your actions have done more harm than good. In many ways this is what is happening with the TARP bail out.