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Craig Brimhall Vice president, wealth strategies American Express Financial Advisors

Brimhall is a national spokesman for American Express Financial Advisors. He writes and speaks frequently on retirement savings and distributions. On this week's program, he'll talk about a model portfolio for a 55-year-old American close to retirement.

Before assuming his current job, Brimhall was regional vice president of investments for the Virginia, Washington D.C., and Baltimore areas, where he provided support and training programs for advisors, sales consultants, and clients on financial planning, investment strategies, stock market outlook, asset allocation, retirement and estate planning. He joined American Express Financial Advisors in 1980 to work as a personal financial advisor. Brimhall is licensed as a certified financial planner, certified fund specialist, and chartered retirement planning counselor.

Terry Savage Personal finance columnist Chicago Sun-Times

Terry Savage, personal finance columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times, is a frequently-quoted expert on personal finance. A former stockbroker and a founding member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Savage also traded current and interest rate futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. She currently sits on the boards of McDonald's and Pennzoil Quaker State, and is a former director of Devon Energy and The Broadway Stores.

Savage appears regularly on CNN, NBC and public television programs such as NewsHour and Nightly Business Report. Her latest book is The Savage Truth About Money.

She won a National Press Club award for Outstanding Consumer Journalism, and an Outstanding Personal Finance Columnist award given by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She also won an Emmy for an hour-long TV special: "Money -- It Doesn't Grow on Trees!" Savage is a director of the Executive's Club of Chicago, Northwestern Memorial (Hospital) Foundation, Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, and Junior Achievement of Illinois. She graduated from the University of Michigan.

Bart Geer Senior portfolio manager Putnam Investments

Geer has managed Putnam's Equity Income Fund since December 2000. The fund, which had more than $2 billion in assets at the end of July, mainly invests in large and mid-cap companies that pay dividends, although between 5 percent and 15 percent of the portfolio can be invested in bonds.

Like many value funds, Putnam Equity Income has outperformed the S&P 500 this year. But net asset value is hardly the point; as the fund's name implies, this is all about steady income, and Putnam Equity does very well in that regard. "Conservative investors looking for a core holding would be well-served by this fund," Morningstar said. "It doesn't pack a lot of punch, but you'll probably sleep very soundly owning it."

Before coming to Putnam, Geer spent 14 years at State Street Investments, where he was an analyst and later a portfolio manager. He started his professional career as a mergers and acquisitions analyst for Hanna Mining.