Take photos and videos of winner holding winning ticket. Including close ups, and both sides. IMMEDIATELY.
Find the securest damn place in your home, place your ticket there, and take more pictures. Just so you don’t forget.
As advised, keep low and your mouth shut
Hire FIRST a highly respected, board certified, EXPENSIVE, well insured, ESTATE PLANNING Attorney. Preferably one who’s handled big time lottery winners before.
(I knew one who told me he was able to prove the ticket could be split amongst immediate family, as they went “All in” on the purchase. This allowed them to split up the proceeds and accordingly, the estates)
Let him/her/them advise you on which other professionals to hire. DON’T HIRE a financial planner yourself. Or anyone else! A big time estate planning lawyer has plenty of recommendations for a planner, insurance guy, CPA, whatever. Don’t do it yourself and seek someone else out, especially your current one or a “Friend” in the business
Let the EPL advise you on when to sign, where to secure, etc. Don’t follow anyone else’s “advice” Including mine.
If you have to take a few days to make this hire, do so. Use searches liberally to see who’s who in your state’s EP field. When contacting, you might fake it, that you had won a much more modest, but large lottery and wanted to hire someone to handle it. Since winners generally have long times to claim their prize, you can again search to see some of the larger winnings and cite that $$$ amount. I say this to ensure that the word does not get out before you have a chance to speak with the attorney. This will ensure even his/her partners, assistants, etc. do not know you are the billion dollar winner.
Most likely someone in a big downtown firm. That isn’t to say small firms or solos, as they generally have big time firm experience, and went out on their own. Nevertheless, big firms have lots of specialists you might need (e.g. tax) I wouldn’t worry much about their fees for this kind of winnings, but do be wary of “value billing” They didn’t win the lottery, you did.
May also want to get a signed “Non Disclosure Agreement” from anyone before you talk to them and pay them for their time.