The story of Estate Settlement Partners began to take shape when I was in the middle of my Senior Real Estate Specialist Designation (SRES) training, offered by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Throughout the training there was much discussion about the inner workings of the probate process and the demands it put on the lives and relationships of the people it touched. We talked about how the lion’s share of the stress and pressure falls on the shoulders of either the Personal Representative (PR) or Executor, and how family dynamics often make what you might think to be a position of honor, exceedingly more difficult than necessary.
The person who passed away created their will when they were still considered to be of sound mind. It’s reasonable to think that they had a good idea as to what they would like to have happen with their estate after leaving this world. After all, they created it! It’s also reasonable to think that the person who wrote the will would have given a considerable amount of thought as to who he wanted to represent his best interests when he was no longer capable.
If I were in that position, I would certainly select a person with whom I was well acquainted and who I was convinced would be the most steadfast in honoring and maintaining the legacy I had built up over my lifetime. Therefore, one would imagine that whoever finds him or herself being bestowed the honorific of Personal Representative (PR) would feel a great deal of responsibility, and duty bound to carry out the wishes of someone who doesn’t have the physical capability of doing so for himself.
I can personally attest to the possible existence of those people who, sometimes softly and oftentimes vehemently, disagree with the terms of the will and file a formal challenge in Probate Court. They want the Judge to find that the person whose legacy the will represents and was made at a time when he or she was of sound mind, to either change the terms of the will in their own financial favor, or take something away from someone else. Unfortunately, the PR, is the most visible and accessible representation of the will in the eyes of those who are unhappy with its terms, and may become the unfortunate target of their anger and hostility, even if they never make a formal challenge.
I feel the need to provide you with some of my personal back story here, so you can appreciate that, for me; starting, developing, growing, and succeeding, with a business like Estate Settlement Partners is such a natural and personal, Perfect Storm for me, as to be a virtual a no-brainer.
Below, I will describe a personal and business life’s experience that is not possible for any other real estate agent on the face of this planet to replicate. I will give you absolute proof of my personal character and intent. You will learn how I was able to develop such an amazing, and wide array of personal skills, instincts, and capabilities, over such a long period of time, that they have literally become part of my very DNA. If you read the story of Estate Settlement Partners I have written below, you can’t help but understand that this business already existed, patiently waiting for me to walk into it and bring it to life.
I can personally attest to the possible existence of those people who, sometimes softly and oftentimes vehemently, disagree with the terms of the will and file a formal challenge in Probate Court. They want the Judge to find that the person whose legacy the will represents and was made at a time when he or she was of sound mind, to either change the terms of the will in their own financial favor, or take something away from someone else. Unfortunately, the PR, is the most visible and accessible representation of the will in the eyes of those who are unhappy with its terms, and may become the unfortunate target of their anger and hostility, even if they never make a formal challenge.
I feel the need to provide you with some of my personal back story here, so you can appreciate that, for me; starting, developing, growing, and succeeding, with a business like Estate Settlement Partners is such a, natural, and personal, Perfect Storm for me, as to be a virtual a no-brainer.
Below, I will describe a personal and business experience that is not possible for any other real estate agent on the face of this planet to replicate. I will give you absolute proof of my personal character and intent. You will learn how I was able to develop such an amazing, and wide array of personal skills, instincts, and capabilities, over such a long period of time, that they have literally become part of my very DNA. If you read the story of Estate Settlement Partners I have written below, you can’t help but understand that this business already existed, patiently waiting for me to walk into it and bring it to life.
It is a way for me to give form to an inexplicable, life-long, personal passion I’ve had for helping other people, giving back to the communities I live and work in, leading to my complete conviction that the only way for me to get where I want to go, is to help you get where you want to go.
An Innate Desire To Serve
o I grew up in Dorchester during the early 60s. When I was eight years old, I came in second place for my age going door to door, selling raffle tickets in a City-wide fundraising effort to benefit Danny Thomas’s St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. My effort earned me a place on the stage of the Boston Arena with Danny Thomas himself!
o I became a successful Sales Representative for a Paper Merchant after undergraduate school. At one point, and I can remember exactly where I was when it happened, the idea that it was time to “Give Back” took possession of my inner being. I immediately thought of the three people who came into my life at just the right time and kicked me in the butt to send me off in a much better direction. I became a Big Brother in the Big Brother Association of Greater Boston to honor them. My match with Eddie lasted 10 years and may be the longest continuous match in the Association’s history. I was recruited to join the Board of Directors, chairing various committees as the need arose, and ending up as Executive Vice President.
o It feels very rewarding to tell people that Eddie served as the Best Man in our wedding.
o Thereafter, I took advantage of various volunteer opportunities along the way, as well as serving on a variety of Boards of Directors.
o After my sister contracted breast cancer (from which she has long since been in remission, thank God) I trained to compete in The Boston Light Swim. It is a 10 Mile, open ocean swim, that begins at Boston Light (well beyond the Harbor Islands), ending at the James Michael Curley Recreation Center, more commonly known as the L St. Bathhouse, in South Boston. I used the event to raise $10,000, half of which I donated to the Big Brother Association, for obvious reasons. The other half to Breast Cancer Research in honor of my sister.
So, it’s not just empty words I use when I tell you that I have an innate desire to honestly be of service to other people. I think it might be part of my DNA. Frankly, I have no idea where it came from, and I very rarely even speak about these things.
I placed my life firmly in God’s Hands when I left a long career in the Paper industry to start a Printing Business from scratch. Master Printers of New England was a printing broker, which was an amazing opportunity for me, and served as a proving ground for many of the necessary skills that are so important to the success of Estate Settlement Partners.
At the time, printing companies were defined by the type of very expensive equipment they had in their building. They were also restricted to selling only the kind of work that fit their equipment. I didn’t own any equipment, so I didn’t have those restrictions. I used everyone else’s! What a gig!
My print vendors loved me because I was able to bring them work for which they didn’t have to pay an in-house salesperson a commission. So, they were able to give me a discount because of the volume I brought them. I also had a tremendous storehouse of knowledge about paper, which was at least 50% of the cost of producing a printing job. So, I purchased all of my own paper and sent it wherever I was having work done, thereby driving down 50% of the cost of the job. My customers ended up having all their work done correctly and on time, because I was on top of every single detail, no matter where it was being produced.
I was doing complicated direct mail and fulfillment work long before some of the largest printing companies finally woke up and found out that if they purchased the right kind of equipment, they could do that work as well. I printed hundreds of thousands of beautiful, full color catalogs, brochures, direct mail pieces, newsletters and Hard Cover Books at a time. My top tier vendors were in Ithaca, St. Louis, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Scottsdale. The Hard Cover Books were printed in Toronto or Montreal. It was not unlikely for me to purchase from 75,000# up to 250,000# of paper of at a time.
Finally, I developed a customer for whom I either produced or sourced to purchase all the items that would be included in a “Kit.” Only about half of the material that went into a kit was printed, which brought it into a comfortable personal wheelhouse for me. Which is another way of saying that I walked directly into the unknown, lacking even a clue about what I was doing. However, I was confident that I’d soon find out. We also printed the corrugated packaging and die cut the interior compartment into which each of the non-printed items would snugly fit. We had everything shipped to what was then called “Sheltered Workshops” to be placed in stock and used to assemble final kits for shipping.
At one point, we were responsible for about 8 entirely different “Kits,” each of which required somewhere in the vicinity of 10 to 14 vendors to complete. Some of my vendors were involved in more than one kit, while many had only one piece in one kit. We even produced 2 entirely new Board Games that looked much like a typical game of Monopoly, complete with the board itself and all the necessary parts.
We was responsible for the on-time shipping of every kit order, which were sometimes as many as 20,000 kits, as well as the quality control of every single item that went into all the kits. At the same time I was responsible for selling and producing all of the printed work we had to do, very often flying to whatever plant was doing the work to do quality control on the color as it came off the press.
When I saw the handwriting on the wall for the printing business, I morphed Master Printers of New England into an Award-Winning Marketing and Advertising Agency. The Discovery Communications Group was a Fully Integrated Agency, which meant that we could create the marketing strategy that was just right for our clients, not which fit into a certain area of expertise like many of our competitors. In many ways the ability to create anything the largest Agencies in the world could create, with significantly lwer overheadthis reflected the ability to place a customers printing job on the correct piecr=e of wequipment, one We could then execute the strategy on behalf of our clients, oftentimes including design and development of websites, to all manner of print, video, and digital marketing, to social media, and traditional media such as newspaper and radio advertising.
Our client base included many mid-sized companies which often initiated the interaction because word-of-mouth marketing was the source of most of our business. They could not afford the big Boston agencies, nor did they have the staff or expertise to do their own marketing. However, they had a desperate need for marketing services and we were often the Agency that was recommended because we could do it all.
Many Advertising Agencies took work because it could end up being an award winner. I swear, they thrived on producing work just for the sake of winning awards. And while our work was just as good as all the larger Boston agencies with more readily recognized names, I always eschewed entering any competitions because it took staff time away from the work we needed to do for our clients.
Almost all of the Marketing and Advertising Agencies in New England, large or small, were members of a trade organization called the New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA), which sponsored educational opportunities, monthly meetings featuring various topics of interest, etc. NEDMA also sponsored its Annual Awards of Excellence, into which every member agency was allowed to submit their best work to be blind judged by an impartial panel in New York.
One year I caved in and allowed my staff to talk me into submitting our best work for award consideration. I think there were eight main categories and several subcategories. I kid you not when I say it was a TON of work. We entered 4 categories and we naturally had to supply samples of all the work that was done for that campaign or for that particular client.
We also had to provide extensive descriptions as to how the work came about, how it was produced, how long it took, all the specs of the work, what specific goals were sought, what specific role various people played, what benefit the client actually received from the work, and a player to be named later. My God, the time it consumed was awful.
Sometime later we received word that we placed in the top three for three of our pieces. We could not find whether it was for first, second, or third place until the award winners were announced at the annual dinner which was to be held at Roxie in Boston’s Theater District. Naturally, I purchased a table and the little Agency, now located in Salem, NH, went into the big city to see what all the fuss was about. It was certainly a night we would all remember for quite a while.
We were awarded First Place in the category of Interactive Video. The job involved renting the Smith & Wesson rifle range in Springfield, MA, where we had some of the in-house marksmen shoot Armor Piercing Bullets, bullets the size of miniature missiles that can pierce the armor of Sherman Tanks, using a 30 06 rifle, which I am told is one of the most powerful rifles made, into the bullet proof vest made by our client, from a distance of only 40 yards.
The videography was off the charts astounding, the overall production, planning and editing was nothing less than spectacular, and the first bullet fired did NOT pierce the bullet proof vest. The Smith & Wesson Marksmen were shocked! They were nearly knocked onto the floor when the second bullet, after the vest had suffered the degrading effects of the first bullet, did not penetrate! They also used a number of different caliber rifles, one time shooting a vest SIX TIMES, and not getting a penetration. I created a marketing campaign for this client that put them on the map where they were purchased by a larger company, finally ending up being bought by 3M.
We were surprised again when we took first place in the Graphic Design category. I will not go into any detail about this one. But I will say that it takes a certain amount of skill to manage a Graphic Designer, a combination of kid gloves and a sledgehammer. So, if you ever have an opportunity to give your idea to a Designer, even if draw the whole thing out on paper in all its specific splendor, please stay calm, but hold your ground when the first rendition has nothing to do with what you gave him or her to do. Stay the course and make sure you see exactly what you expect to see. It will generally show up in round three.
I don’t quite know how to say this, but one of the last awards announced that night was the most prestigious of the evening, and of the year. It wa the Award for Fully Integrated Campaign, which, when translated into English, is the award for the Agency that created a campaign that utilized all possible mediums of communication, blending them all into a finely tuned campaign of branding and marketing, and one more than succeeded in reaching it’s goals.
Yes, The Discovery Communications Group took first place in this category as well, beating the biggest and the best Advertising Agencies in all of New England. This was a totally new Branding and Marketing campaign we created for the very first “Celebration of Excellence” that was held by Enterprise Bank at an entirely full Lowell Memorial Auditorium.
Without laying out or describing for you the specific operating manual of Estate Settlement Partners, or providing a sort of bullet pointed list of possibilities that we might be able to put into service for you, I just gave you an exact blueprint of what makes the Estate Settlement Partners tick, and answered any questions about the character and capability of the network’s founder.
On the home page of this website, you will find a grid that goes into great detail as to the awesome array of professional skills that are available to you, at your beck and call, through our partnership network. This means that we have the capability of taking any or all parts of the probate process and its attendant stresses and pressures off your shoulders and placing them squarely into our strong and inviting arms.
Also, on the home page of this website, you will find a grid that describes a unique code of values that every single member of our burgeoning network of professional partners has ascribed to. This removes any concerns you may have as to the character, intent, and dedication to achieving THE GREATER GOOD for everyone concerned that we may have.
All you need to do is make one phone call.
It’s the greatest pressure relief valve known to man!
CALL GEORGE WALLACE AT 978-288-1314 – YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID!