Being Curious About George

In April 2011, Executor’s Resource welcomed George Deriso as its new Chief Operating Officer. George’s previous experience includes senior positions at Apple, AT&T and Gartner, Inc., and we love the new insight he gives to our culture and our product. 

Over the past month we have had the opportunity to get to know George, and he shared a story with us that we have the honor of publishing right here as part of our blog. We are thrilled to be sharing it with you all. Enjoy!

 

Why I Joined Executor’s Resource

by George Deriso

“Twenty-five years ago this December my maternal grandmother died. I spent time with her while she was in the hospital, and shared many stories and fond memories with my siblings and parents while we anxiously waited in the hospital visitor's room, hungry for good news that never materialized.

My mother was the second of three children, bookended by her older brother and younger sister. Through the years my own siblings and I were growing up, my mother went to great lengths to take us frequently to visit my grandmother. We loved her beautiful San Francisco home; situated next to a park and built in 1940, it was an ideal place for kids to run around and explore.

She was a lover of antiques and artwork and had a magnificent collection of silver serving dishes and utensils that she brought out for festive meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas. And she was an exceptional cook. Needless to say, when she died she took a big part of my childhood with her.

She was prepared, though. She had an up-to-date will and had already appointed an executor for her estate: my mother's younger sister.

Whether through intention or misdirection, my aunt was not able to organize and execute my grandmother's considerable estate. Bank accounts were drained, CDs cashed out, expensive cars sold or put to use by my aunt's immediate family - all to the frustration and growing anger of my mother and her brother. They, in effect, were left out of the settlement of the estate.

After several months, my mother sued my aunt for the executorship and won the suit. When she took over the estate, it was all but decimated. It took many more months to sort out what had happened and organize what remained. The last items were distributed between my uncle and my mother and my grandmother's estate - after a few years of duress - finally was closed.

Neither my uncle nor my mother ever spoke to my aunt again, and all three have passed away. I lost touch with my cousins. Besides suffering the grief of my beloved grandmother's death, I had lost another large portion of the family I had grown up with.

With this memory as a backdrop, I fast forward to 2002. My mother was diagnosed with advanced COPD (late stage emphysema), a degenerative disease with no cure. She appointed me as her executor: a dubious honor in my mind.

The only experience I had with executorship was the destruction of my grandmother's estate and the resulting acrimony that tore our family apart. I used this as a benchmark for what not to do and set about learning what I was required to do as an executor.

With the help of my siblings, I spent the next four years:

-       videotaping and cataloging my mother's belongings

-       journaling and recording family stories and anecdotes

-       putting powers of attorney in place

-       creating healthcare directives and living trusts

-       gathering mementos, artifacts, contact lists, organ donor details and much more.

More importantly, I made it a point to phone my mother weekly and bring my wife and children to visit frequently.

When my mother died in March of 2006, the grief we all felt was heavy. I set about my duties as her executor. The time we had spent organizing her estate previous to her death immediately paid off. The conversations we all had settling her estate only took one month. My siblings were cooperative and supportive - no acrimony. Instead of focusing on matters of the material estate, we could focus on the stories of our long past together - something I know for certain my mother would have wanted.

The differences between my grandmother's estate settlement and my mother's were fueled by organization and communication. On the surface, these are two functions performed very well by EstateLogic®, the flagship product developed by Executor's Resource.

But the product does so much more. It becomes the medium for creating your life's story and sharing it in a deeply meaningful way both while you are alive and later when you are not. The people behind Executor's Resource are extraordinary in that they believe that you are your estate. For us, it's not just the tangible artifacts that represent you, but your stories as told in voice, video, words and photos.

So my decision was simple: to work with a group of people who care more for who you are than what you are, investing my passion in a product that can dramatically reduce the time it takes to settle your estate while ensuring that your specific wishes are met as you intend them to be - without acrimony and without unrecoverable cost.”