One piece of advice that will go unheeded is that you can choose to take the earnings over a period of 30 years, which would be a fabulous fixed income!
I gonna get me a bigger truck!
If you sign the ticket, it will be in YOUR NAME when you redeem it. That information will be published. Then you will need to keep an even lower profile, which will be impossible.
This is terrible advice.
Either disappear to someplace where you are not known to anyone, or hire bonded security 24/7. You’ve just become a target for kidnapping, or extortion if you have skeletons in your closet.
The first thing recommended, upon receiving the money, is depositing a reasonable amount in the bank, after you have it set up for investments and take off for 6 months to separate the news of the win for yourself and enjoy a nice vacation as you figure out what to do with the rest of your life.
Here’s an excerpt, with link, from back when Powerball was over $1 billion:
...The best thing a winner can do is stay anonymous, financial adviser and CPA Kurt Panouses, who helped a Florida couple that won a portion of the largest jackpot ever, said.
“The initial concern of the ticket is probably the most important part of the planning aspect,” Panouses said. “What the individual should do is protect the ticket, keep it safe, put it in a safe place, but do not sign the back of the ticket.”
“Whoever signs the back of the ticket is the individual that has to claim the ticket and the proceeds,” Panouses explained.
Panouses also suggested making a copy of the ticket and getting a tax professional and an attorney to help manage the funds and offer investment advice.
Link: https://www.lotterypost.com/news/317669
As for the comment about taking it over 30 instead of a lump sum, the time value of money must be considered.
That’s not the advice I’m hearing in PSA’s on college radio coming from the local historically black university. There’s an attorney saying to retain an attorney, set up an LLC then a blind trust, fill out the name of the blind trust with address being your attorney’s office, and have the attorney claim the winnings on behalf of your blind trust.
I’m donating it all to Trump, to build that wall.
If I win I shall invest it all in houses and lots.
Whore houses and lots of whiskey.
One more step, I would have a notary witness and confirm your signature on the ticket.
905 million cash
Take out 40.4% Federal (highest tax bracket plus insipid obamacare tax)
Take out your state income tax (AR=7%)
Final after tax lump sum for ME= ~$550,000,000 in the bank.
Id take $55,000,000.00 off the top and tithe.
Then invest the 495,000,000.00 in one of two ways:
1) 500 mm in double tax exempt GO munis so I never have to pay taxes again.
OR
2) divide it up in 4 100mm blocks.
1) 100mm in tax free AR munis Aa2 school bonds with state aid. 4-5% coupon. I don't care if I pay premium.
2) 100mm in taxable munis prefereds and corporate bonds for higher cashflow. Nothing below 5% coupon.
3) 100mm in Mortgage Backed securities with GNMA/FNMA obligations for monthly asset backed income. Typically 3-handle coupon but usually has a government backing.
4) 95mm in equities in stocks with at least a 3% dividend yield and that George Soros or China cant mess with: JNJ, AAPL, T, VZ, D, SO, DUK, BUD, KO, PEP, UNP, Visa, PG, DWDP, BA, CAT, DE, etc.
So I have a tax free debt income, a taxable debt income, a taxable asset backed income, and a growth income in the market.
It would take a couple of months to buy that many securities and structure them in a laddered portfolio, but I would continue to work for a while and pay off debts with my income generated.
Of course wife and I would be gifting the maximum annual exclusion of $11,000,000.00 to each family member.
The goal would be an average of 4% coupon: 4% on 500mm = $20 million a year tax free income. We can't spend that. We would be gifting ALOT.
First donations would go to Church(es), NRA, GOA, FreeRepublic, etc.
We'd probably retire in 2020 and give 18 mm away every year and live on 2mm tax free income. We just couldn't spend that much money.
30 years ago if you told me Kodak, Sears, AIG, Arthur-Anderson, Wachvovia, and Lehman Brothers would be gone or forced to be bought, I'd think you were crazy.
Nope. Take the lump sum.
First thing to do is pray.
Second, get the ticket to a lockbox.
Third, show up at estate attorney office with a CPA and show them your iphone screen shot of the winning ticket.
GO from there building your legal fortress.
After all the trusts and LLCs are set up, then you call me and I'll sell you a fixed income, laddered portfolio as per your goals and suitability.
Here in AR, with 7% state income tax, I'll net 550mm out of the 906mm cash payout.
With 4-5% coupon tax free bonds, I'll make >$22mm a year from interest alone, and STILL have my 550mm after the calls/redemptions/maturity dates.
It’s not worth the mental cycles. First, because I didn’t buy a ticket. Second, because if I did buy a ticket there is statistically no way I can win. The odds are so astronomical as to be statistically zero.
Which is why I didn’t buy a ticket and don’t have to stress over what I’m going to do if I win. :)
Ah the lottery. A tax on people that can’t understand math.
Let me show you how it works.
Give me a dollar, nope you lost.
Give me another dollar, nope you lost again. Hey but you were close.
They don’t build those casinos by people winning.
For later reading.
First thing I would do is disconnect all phone lines and get new non-listed private phone numbers.
For those who recommend taking the time payment annuity. IIRC, when you die, your beneficiaries become liable for the tax bill. The bill on the total amount, ie, if the payments are $50M per year and there are another 20 payments, then the taxable amount is $1,000M. Due at once. But, you say, I won’t get the whole amount for many years, the IRS doesn’t care. This is one of those reasons many people are screaming out the window “It’s my money and I want it now.” At that point you have no choice but to sell the annuity at it’s present value which sometimes is less than the tax bill.
Win in a state that you don’t have to disclose your identity.
Then give the ticket along with a promise of a commission to a best friend and have him claim the prize.............
The first thing to do is contact a lawyer who will setup a contract of ownership of the ticket. If you receive the total and plan to gift a portion to other family members, you will be hit again for gift taxes on each payout exceeding the lawful limit. Giving each family a percentage of ownership allows them to collect their net percentage. Fund retirement accounts for each family member. Fund 529’s for each child of each family member. Give a percent ownership to a new charitable foundation you setup for your favorite cause. Take a very generous salary for administering the fund assets and payouts.