When She Died In 2016, Her Own Family Was Stunned To Learn That A Brooklyn Secretary Had Built A $9 Million Fortune. Here’s What Every Investor Can Learn From The Unusual Story Of Sylvia Bloom
When Jane Lockshin agreed to settle her aunt's modest affairs after a 67-year career as a legal secretary, she expected paperwork and a small savings account. What she found across three brokerage houses and eleven banks stopped her cold.
Sylvia Bloom died in 2016. Her niece, Jane Lockshin, became executor of the estate and expected to settle the modest affairs of a retired legal secretary. What she found was money spread across three brokerage houses and 11 banks. Lockshin called the discovery “an oh my God moment” and said, “I realized she had millions and she had never mentioned a word.” According to SBS and Legal Cheek, the fortune amounted more than $9 million.
A Brooklyn Life Spent at One Law Firm
Bloom was born to Eastern European immigrants and, according to SBS, grew up in Brooklyn during the Great Depression. She went to public schools and earned a Hunter College degree through night classes while she worked. In 1947 she joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen Hamilton as one of the firm’s first employees. SBS and the Forward report that she stayed 67 years. She retired at 96, by which time the firm had grown to more than 1,200 lawyers.
Paul Hyams, a human resources executive at the firm who knew her for more than 35 years, said she was its longest-tenured staff member and that she regretted never going to law school. Her husband, Raymond Margolies, was a retired city firefighter who became a schoolteacher and worked as a pharmacist on the side. He died in 2002. They had no children.
Buying What the Boss Bought, in Smaller Amounts
Lockshin said secretaries of that era “ran their boss’ lives, including their personal investments.” The Forward reports that early in her career, Bloom bought stocks for her bosses and then bought the same ones for herself in smaller amounts. Lockshin said the smaller size came from the fact that “she was on a secretary’s salary.” No source says any wrongdoing. The habit was a product of its time, and readers should not copy it.
She lived simply. The couple rented a rent-controlled apartment, though Hyams said she “could have lived on Park Avenue if she wanted to.” She took the subway to work, including during a snowstorm shortly before she retired. On September 11, 2001, at age 84, she walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and took a city bus home. After retiring she moved to a senior residence, mainly to find a good bridge game.
Millions Hidden Until the Will Was Read
Lockshin thought her aunt saw her finances as private. She said it was “very possible” that Bloom’s husband never knew how much there was. Hyams said he was “completely astounded.”
Bloom left $6.24 million to the Henry Street Settlement, the largest single gift from an individual in the agency’s 125-year history. The money endows its Expanded Horizons College Success Program for disadvantaged students. Another $2 million is to be split between Hunter College and another scholarship fund. The Forward reported that $8.2 million of the estate went to scholarships. None of the sources we read explains the gap between that figure and the larger fortune figure. Henry Street executive director David Garza said, “We were all agape, just blown away.”
A Lesson Today’s Savers Can Use
Americans are saving less now. The personal saving rate fell to 4.4% in the second quarter of 2026, down from 6.9% in early 2024. The FINRA Foundation found that 26% of adults spent more than they earned in 2024, an all-time high for its study.
Bloom’s story shows how modest, steady investing kept up over a very long time can grow into a large sum. Each part of it is documented: a career that lasted decades, purchases smaller than her bosses’ and a life lived well below her means. The full picture is not documented, though. Her husband had his own paychecks, and the household’s total earnings and any other sources of money are unknown.
How she wanted to be remembered is clear. She never mentioned a word, and Garza called her gift “the epitome of selflessness.”
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AJ spent 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics, that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.
