Merrill Lynch Investment Managers to Launch New Brand for Retail Asset Management Business in the U.S.

NEW YORK -- U.S. Retail Products to Be Offered Under "Princeton Portfolio Research & Management" Brand

Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) announced today that its asset management subsidiary Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) is launching a new brand for its retail asset management business in the U.S. Beginning in May 2006, the firm's U.S. retail products will be offered under the "Princeton Portfolio Research & Management" brand. MLIM is one of the world's largest money managers, with $539 billion in assets under management.

The brand launch is part of a growth strategy for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers designed to broaden distribution of the firm's retail products among non-Merrill Lynch financial advisors. Ninety-five percent of the estimated 299,978 registered advisors in the U.S. are non-Merrill Lynch advisors.(1)

"Merrill Lynch is a pre-eminent financial services brand," said Robert Doll, president and chief investment officer of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. "MLIM's ability to produce superior investment products and performance is greatly enhanced by its connection to Merrill Lynch and the global reach, superior resources, and marketplace intelligence that come with it. But the Merrill Lynch name has also inhibited broader acceptance of our retail products by third-party financial advisors, many of whom view Merrill Lynch as a competitor.

"This new brand is the linchpin of our efforts to make our industry-leading products and services available to an even broader range of advisors and investors," Doll said. "It represents an opportunity to focus third-party attention where it should be - on our ability to deliver consistent and strong performance over a long time horizon."

Stan O'Neal, Merrill Lynch chairman and chief executive officer, said: "Asset management is a core part of Merrill Lynch's business and we see it making a greater contribution to the financial performance of the company. We firmly believe that in an open architecture marketplace our strong, sustained investment performance will enable us to grow the business and make asset management a larger part of our business mix."

The brand launch comes at a time of strong global growth for MLIM. Retail assets have grown to $288 billion globally as of December 31, 2005. MLIM's U.S. third-party retail and sub-advisory business assets under management have grown to $28 billion, up substantially from $4 billion at the end of 2002. At the same time, its retail business in Europe and Asia reached $65 billion and MLIM's global proprietary retail business continues to grow, closing the year at $195 billion in AUM.

Scope and Implementation

The new brand and accompanying logo will unite all of MLIM's retail products in the U.S. across distribution channels and vehicles under a single name. Until now, MLIM's retail products have been distributed under two different brands - Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and Mercury Advisors.

The Princeton Portfolio Research & Management brand is specifically directed at the U.S. retail market. MLIM will continue to use the Merrill Lynch Investment Managers brand for its institutional, non-U.S. and offshore businesses. MLIM manages $250 billion for institutional clients globally, including corporations, public funds, endowments & foundations and Taft-Hartley plans.

MLIM's portfolio management teams will not change as a result of the new brand, nor will any of the investment strategies used for its mutual funds or separately managed accounts.

The new brand will appear on retail products beginning in May as part of a program that will include name changes for the MLIM funds, new marketing materials, a new web address, and a trade and general business advertising campaign.

"MLIM has made its home in the Princeton area for nearly 20 years and has a strong commitment to the community," said Doll. "In developing our new brand, we were looking for a name that would feel familiar to the tens of thousands of advisors who sell our products and, at the same time, evoke the high performance standard and sense of rigor and integrity that we view as so critical to our mission as investment managers."

Commenting on the new brand, Frank Porcelli, chief operating officer of MLIM Americas, said: "We believe advisors are going to look at Princeton Portfolio Research & Management and see our ability to create investment value and to be an essential partner for our clients. And we think we have five core assets that set us apart - our performance culture, risk management, innovative investment solutions, consultative service platform and global strength. These assets are integrated into every aspect of our organization, every portfolio we manage and every relationship we build."

Global Network, Highly Ranked Product Set

Merrill Lynch's asset management business has been managing individual and institutional investments for more than 30 years through a worldwide network that includes 550 investment professionals.

In the U.S., the company provides a wide range of retail investment opportunities with a complete suite of products including 61 open-end funds, 47 closed-end funds, a variety of separately managed account strategies, and alternative investments, in addition to institutional portfolio construction.

MLIM's mutual fund offerings include 42 four- and five-star Overall Morningstar Rated Funds (as of December 31, 2005).(2) Twenty-seven of those funds are open-end mutual funds.

"Under the Princeton Portfolio Research & Management brand, we can bring our value proposition to millions more investors and the financial professionals who advise them," Doll said.

Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies, with offices in 36 countries and territories and total client assets of approximately $1.8 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global trader and underwriter of securities and derivatives across a broad range of asset classes and serves as a strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions and individuals worldwide. Through Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the company is one of the world's largest managers of financial assets. Firmwide, assets under management total $544 billion. For more information on Merrill Lynch, please visit www.ml.com.

(1)Cerulli Associates

(2)Excludes money market funds. For each fund with at lest a 3-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive five stars, the next 22.5% receive four stars, the next 35% receive three stars, the next 22.5% receive two stars and the bottom 10% receive one star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its 3, 5- and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics.