Was Harry Greb a millionaire or a thousandaire when he died

I wouldn't be surprised if Harry Greb grossed less than one million dollars during his career. Yet he definitely made quite a bit of money for his time. In addition, he reportedly left an estate of $75,000. to his daughter, Dorothy, but it turned out to being about half of that amount after going through a probate process. Of course, even an estate of about $38,000. was substantial during the 1920s.

- Chuck Johnston

 

Early estimates of Greb's estate were that it was worth $200,000. I have Greb's will. It leaves behind a valued estate of just over $77,000 which in 1926 was worth over $1million. When the estate was settled over two years later it had been reduced to just over $37,000. There are several reasons for this: 1. Greb was heavily invested in stocks and bonds. Many of these stocks devalued in that time. Many of the stocks and bonds were short sold at a loss to liquidate the assets (which normally would be stupid but given the crash of 1929 was just around the corner they may have made a smart move). Another reason the valuation decreased is because Greb was involved in a lawsuit with his former manager Red Mason in the months leading up to his death. He had settled the lawsuit before he died but died a day or two before he could actually sign the settlement. The settlement would have called for Mason to get little or nothing but since Greb died Mason continued the lawsuit against his estate and rather than go through the process the family just paid him $15,000. That's a hefty chunk for that time period. There were also debts associated with the surgery that caused his death, funeral expenses, the surgery to remove his eye a month before his death, etc etc. that had to be settled before the estate could pay out to his heirs. However, his estate may well have been worth much more than his will recorded. For instance Greb owned a great deal of property in Pittsburgh. He owned enough property that he was called "the Garfield landlord" in the press (Garfield being the district of Pittsburgh where he was from). At least one of these buildings was a large apartment building. None of this extra property is recorded in his will. That alone would have brought his worth up substantially. Another factor is that Greb was known to have a lot of cash (not unusual for a fighter) and there was not a whole lot of cash accounted for in his will. Its very likely that given the two lawsuits he was defending himself against at the time of his death which totaled well over $200,000, that he had assigned much of his property to his family and that they had simply taken any large amounts of cash he kept on hand before it could be accounted for and attached to his estate which could/would be subject to debts, lawsuits, etc. So its entirely possible, if not likely that after Greb's death the family kept a great deal of his wealth off the books so as not to lose it.

 

Me too.

If I had all the money I ever spent, I'd be a millionaire right now.

:verysad

 

Greb wasnr broke by any stretch even after his estate was halved.

 

I deal with this a fair amount in my business practise and for the most part, at least in Canada, it works like this.

If assets are held in joint name, (ie you and your spouse) and you die, it doesn't become part of the estate, so it doesn't matter what the will says. Secondly the will doesn't spell out what you own or are worth, people's assets and debts change on an ongoing basis and usually the will references the percentage of an estate a beneficiary is entitled to, although it can also specific a certain $$$ amount a beneficiary receives instead.

Rather in Canada, wills are probated, and it's the probate document which lists the assets and liabilities someone has.

Point being the Will doesn't always tell the whole story and if many of the assets were in joint name, they may very well never been listed as assets at all, simply because they would have transferred to the other party and excluded from this process. And if you start getting holding corporations and trusts involved well that's a whole other level of complication. I imagine this is probably what Klompton means by "off the books"

 

What a damned shame Greb did not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Life is not always fair...

 

I have the probate documents as well. Those are actually the ones that itemize his estate but like i said for some reason parts of his estate, like the properties he owned, dont appear on this list.

 

Good gravy Burt, not only is it not always fair but its usually bites us in the rear for no reason.