2 Asset Management Stocks That Are Passive Income All-Stars

It is easy to get caught up in the fear that usually accompanies a bear market. If you step back and think about the long term, however, you can usually find some pretty compelling investment opportunities while others in the market are being irrationally negative. Passive income all-stars Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN) and T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW) look like two such gems today -- if you can get past the fact that a bear market is terrible for their asset management businesses. Here's what you need to know.

Before discussing anything else, it pays to look at just how reliable Franklin Resources and T. Rowe Price have been for dividend investors. While both are Dividend Aristocrats, they have each boosted their payouts annually for longer than that designation's 25-year minimum. Franklin Resources has increased its dividend annually for 42 years. T. Rowe Price trails a little behind at 36 years.

Those are impressive track records, but it pays to put them into a larger perspective. There have been multiple bear markets over the past three and a half decades. There have been several recessions as well. In fact, one was so bad that it was nicknamed the Great Recession. There were very real fears during that 2007-2009 downturn that the global financial system would seize up and fail. And still, Franklin Resources and T. Rowe Price continued right along with the dividend hikes.

Source Fool.com