Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

The iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index (NYSE: DVY), an exchange-traded fund, is the top conservative idea for 2007 from Leonard Goodall, editor of No-Load Portfolios. He explains, "I like this ETF for two reasons.

"The first reason is that the fund, as the name implies, guarantees a cash flow to investors. The fund's strategy is to buy companies that pay a larger-than-average dividend and that have a record of consistently raising their dividend. The provision of current income is often a high priority goal for conservative investors.

"The second reason is that the fund provides a good probability of achieving capital gains for the long-term investor. There is abundant evidence that dividend-paying stocks outperform other stocks over time. A major reason for this is that dividends provide a cushion against price declines during bear markets.

"ETFs have given the individual investor the ability to target specific needs in a portfolio. This fund was the first of the dividend-oriented ETFs. There are a number of new ones entering the market; this one, however, is established and its annual expense ratio of just .40 is still the lowest available. It has a one-year annual return of 17.1% and a three-year average annualized return of 13.9%."

To see Leonard's favorite speculative ETF for 2007, click here.