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Socialist group prevails in legal battle, seizes lucrative retirement account from professor’s nephews
A national socialist group successfully seized a $6.6 million retirement account from the four nephews of a deceased professor.
Professor David Greenberg died in 2024, setting off a legal battle over his estate, valued at nearly $10 million. The New York University professor had no will, but previously listed the “New American Movement” as the beneficiary of his school retirement plan.
That group later merged with the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Greenberg was also a dues paying member.
The DSA recently won a court battle against Greenberg’s four nephews for the lion’s share of his estate, a $6.6 million retirement account.
National co-chair Ashik Siddique addressed criticism last month over the group’s lawsuit against Greenberg’s family.
“We don’t see any contradiction between being socialists and organizing to have money in a capitalist society,” Siddique said,” according to the New York Times. “The more the better,” he said, “as long as it is meaningfully supporting the decisions that our members make together.”
One of Greenberg’s nephews argued that his uncle’s intention was to leave them the money. After all, the professor listed his two sisters as the beneficiaries on a second retirement plan he enrolled in, which the nephews did receive. The total value of that account worked out to $1.3 million. He also left behind a separate small fortune of “stocks, bonds, and cash worth a total of at least $1 million,” which will not go to the socialist group.
His nephews maintained Greenberg would have believed the retirement funds would all go to his nephews if his sisters died.
“Motivated by his growing family responsibilities, the suit argued, the professor would have assumed his choice of his sisters as beneficiaries for the smaller fund would also apply to his earlier, more valuable account,” according to the NY Times.
One nephew, the estate’s administrator, also cited Greenberg’s love for his family.
“Our Uncle David never missed an important family occasion, especially a birthday, because family meant more to him than anything,” Martin Hecht said. “Even in the months before he passed, he was working on our family lineage, reflecting the deep importance he placed on where we came from and the people we loved.”
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