T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (TROW)

Fees are a share of assets under management, so revenue rises with markets and falls with them — plus outflows if investors leave. Active management costs more than indexing, and the difference can only be justified by performance, which no manager can guarantee.

The anchor is employer retirement plans: money arrives there with every payslip, automatically and almost regardless of market mood. That is the steadiest part of the business and the main reason outflows from individual funds do not bring the company down. It carries no debt. Risks: the shift into index funds and fee pressure. The dividend is high and has been raised for many consecutive years.