WHAT HAPPENS IF AN ANNUITY PRIZE WINNER DIES?
The estate will handle the lottery prize. A lottery annuity prize is just like any other asset. You can pass any remaining annuity payments on to your heirs or to anyone else. The Powerball game will even cash out an annuity prize for an estate. This may make it easier for the estate to distribute the prize. It also may be necessary to cash out the annuity to pay Federal estate taxes. We will sell some or all of the securities at competitive bid or will even just transfer the securities to the estate. We do not charge a fee of any kind. We often hear people complain that the jackpot should not go back to “the state” when a winner dies. It does not. I think that this misunderstanding may come from the response that the prize “goes to the Estate” and some people hear “goes to the State.”
http://www.powerball.com/pb_contact.asp
I stand corrected. I’d always heard different, it might have been that way back in the beginning until someone bitched about it. And rightfully so.
Shows you how much I know about the game. I didn’t even know tickets had gone up to two bucks each until this last giant jackpot when I decided to throw a few bucks into the kitty.
Thanks.