Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
May 08, 2013 at 05:56 AM
A recent story in the New York Times tells of Roman Blum, a Holocaust survivor who died in 2012 at the age of 97, leaving behind no heirs and most importantly, no will. This is worth noting because Blum was also a very successful land developer on Staten Island, and had an estate of some $40 million at the time of his passing. Since Blum died, there has been an exhaustive search for somebody, anybody, who might be legally entitled to Blum’s fortune. So far, there has been no one, and soon, Blum’s considerable fortune will pass into the hands of New York State. It will be the largest unclaimed property estate in the history of New York.
I can hardly think of less deserving hands in which to place such resources, especially given the state’s ongoing refusal to do right by the many innocent people victimized by the unjust liquidation of Executive Life of New York at the hands of a (Corrupt? Incompetent? Take your pick.) New York Liquidation Bureau. It would not be the first time Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration plundered the fortunes of others in order to feed the dragon that is his state’s political machine, so for the state to devour Mr. Blum’s hard-won riches seems both predictable as well as unjust.
Railing against New York State (or any state, for that matter) as the recipient for a person’s estate is a fool’s errand, however. To be fair to New York, the procedure they have in place does deliver the estate money to an heir the moment one is discovered. So it is not like New York is trying to get its hands on something it does not deserve. This truly is a case where, failing no other possible place for the money to go, it ends up going to the state in which Blum himself was a resident. And ultimately, this really does come back to Blum, and not New York. After all, it was Blum who should have planned for his estate, and didn’t.
