Would hire a financial advisor if you won the $1 billion Mega Millions?

[QuarterMillionMan]

Not me but I would hire an attorney to put the winnings in a trust, divided amongst my family and charities. Off the top 37% goes to the Feds, & 11% goes to California. That's a big chunk. But nope I would not hire a financial advisor, would you?

[bjl584]

I would definitely talk to an attorney as my first order of business.
Not sure beyond that.
Probably disappear off the grid for a good while

[disneysteve]

I’d have zero need for a financial advisor. I’m quite capable of putting 700M into a bunch of municipal bonds and living very happily off the 3% interest payments.

An attorney for sure though.

[ua_guy]

It becomes a liability for personal safety, among other things. First call is to a lawyer while I pack things to be away from my home for a good period of time. Then sorting out what staff we need around to create the legal structure and protections that we need. Everything would need to change, and it takes a while to put into place. I'd probably plan to spend about a year on the road.

[kork13]

Trick question -- Can't win it if I refuse to buy lotto tickets. For that matter, nigh unto impossible to win even if you do buy tickets...

But in general, I'd tell most windfall recipients to sit on it a while & seek out some quality advice. That could be a financial advisor, lawyer, accountant, or a combination of the above. The focus should be on preservation & responsible application of the windfall. Most people can't do that well without an outside advisor.

[james.hendrickson]

Another issue is: family and friends asking you for money. Supposedly once the word gets out, lottery winners are inundated with requests.

[disneysteve]

Another issue is: family and friends asking you for money. Supposedly once the word gets out, lottery winners are inundated with requests.

Yeah I really have no interest in winning the big jackpot. I would like to be one of those “small” winners who gets a million though.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Yes I would hire someone. At that level of money you can get into very interesting investments that are worth it. Investments you and I can never get into or reap the benefits of. Of course i'd have to play the lotto first but if i did...

I would have someone getting me into private equity, angel investing HNW, and probably purely commercial RE. I'd also use them to put everything possible into trusts. I would also be gifting the maximum stock of $15k to my family and letting it appreciate.

There are workarounds for everything. And the more money you have the more workarounds you can. I can tell you that one of is gifting your kids non-appreciated stock and letting it appreciate in their name. Or inheriting everything at a stepped up basis. But the appreciation is even better because it could be only $100k against your estate and worth millions by the time they cash it in. Then they pay only 23.9% LTCG

[corn18]

One of my close friends is a lawyer who specializes in high net worth (> $50M) clients at a large national bank. I would call him.

[ua_guy]

We did buy some tickets tonight. Oh, what the heck. It's not something we do very often, and a lot of money from the lottery goes to our public schools. The is the only gambling I do, and it's less than a handful of times per year. I'd totally post here if I won. lol

[scfr]

Are gas stations and grocery stores still the places to buy tickets? I checked the web site and it didn't tell me! It might be fun to buy one.
Yes, I would want professional legal & tax (income and estate) advice. And possibly investment advice if we decided to pursue private investments; I'd consider a firm like Brighton Jones.

[Fishindude77]

I think a CPA and Attorney would be more necessary.

[myrdale]

Personally I would make my claim of the winnings first and foremost. I don't expect to die in the next six weeks, and I don't expect the house to burn down with my ticket inside either, but if either of those occurred, what a tremendous waste.

I'd confirm the ticket was signed.

I'd make a copy of the ticket / front and back. And email to myself.

I'd then drive directly to the lottery office with the ticket safety pinned to the inside of my shirt pocket.

Once I'd stacked my claim on the prize, anonymous if at all possible. After that time I would start planning things out. I'll want a great estate attorney, and a rock star accountant.

The wisest move is opting for the lump sum, rather than the full payout. I don't think I would want to keep $700M in a single account, much less a single bank. I should think the lottery commission would have references for where to get started with.

I'd set some amount, say $5M in one single account with an auto draft to my normal checking. This is what I will live off of for the rest of my life.

I'd set a second account up for blow money. Blowing $1M per year when you have $700M is nothing.

You'd want to be careful about how much information gets out about it all. If I was looking at helping friends and extended family, I'd probably lie about the exact winnings: "Hey I won a small jack pot of $2M and I'd love to give you $200k to pay off your mortgage, and lets put $100k in a fund for Johnny's college, and $5k for Jenny's teeth."

Even letting close family know has the chance to be a liability. It's great that my sister would know and her 12 yr old son. He is a great guy now, but you don't know in 8 years is he top notch man, or have looser friends said "Lets go visit your uncle".

Honestly there are different scales of wealth. <$1M, $5-$10M, +$50M, +$1B. The situation around each would be dramatically different.

[ua_guy]

You'd want to be careful about how much information gets out about it all.

Once the prize is claimed, that becomes public information, and the media reports on who the winner is, and there are actually people who chase lottery winners. We know someone who won a state lottery, but it was back before most people even had internet in their homes. Even then, word spread very quickly. If I recall, her take was north of $500k but less than $1M.

[corn18]

One thing I would do is start a foundation with most of the lump sum. Maybe $500M. Definitely need a lawyer for that. And might hire someone to manage the foundation.