Wisconsin lottery winners need to be really careful...

[Archae]

Several years ago, I saw a documentary about some people who won big lotteries, and how winning made their lives total hell.

"Relatives" and grifters wouldn't leave them alone.

A drug addict said it was like pouring gasoline on a fire.

And so on.

“A wonderful blessing”: Oneida couple claims Powerball jackpot

ONEIDA, Wis. (WBAY) - An Oneida couple has claimed a $316.3 million Powerball jackpot.

Tammy and Cliff Webster purchased the winning ticket at Jackson Pointe Citgo in Green Bay.

The Websters opted to take the cash payment of $225.1 million rather than annual payments. After federal taxes of $54 million and state taxes of $17.2 million, they’ll take home $153.9 million.

“We are sincerely grateful for this incredible event,” said Tammy. “We always believed that we had a chance to win if we played and this is a dream come true.”

https://www.wbay.com/2022/02/07/wonderful-blessing-oneida-couple-claims-powerball-jackpot/

[Thomas Hurt]

1. You bet, just look what having hundreds of millions of dollars helped turn the Pig into...

[Ocelot II]

2. Good luck to them; 70% of lottery winners are broke within a few years.

"People who were little, ordinary people all of a sudden become extraordinary," said Steve Lewit, CEO of Wealth Financial Group in Chicago. "They're euphoric. They lose all sense of reality. They think they're invincible and powerful. They think they're Superman."

The biggest problem, several finance advisers agreed, is that lottery winners give away too much money to family and friends.

"Once family and friends learn of the windfall, they have expectations of what they should be entitled to, and many of these expectations are not rational," said Charles Conrad, senior financial planner with Szarka Financial in North Olmsted. "It can be very difficult to say no."

The easy solution would be to rely on a third party to act as a gatekeeper, Conrad said, but many lottery winners don't turn to anyone to intercept the flood of requests from all of those "close" friends and relatives. The same thing often applies to professional athletes who get huge contracts, he said.

https://www.cleveland.com/business/2016/01/why_do_70_percent_of_lottery_w.html

If I won a lottery the first thing I'd do is hire a lawyer, an accountant and a financial adviser, and not tell anybody else about it until I had some kind of trust or foundation set up that held the funds. That way I could tell my long-lost cousin I never heard of who wanted me to invest in bitcoin that all that sort of thing is being handled by my trustees and here's their phone number...

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. The hiring of a lawyer is essential, but the KIND of lawyer.....

is obviously just as important.

You would need one who specializes in handling high net worth clients, has a lot of them and therefore a reputation to protect.

You need an attorney who has experience in handling tax issues, trusts and foundations and preferably one that has a client base large enough that your paltry $150 mil is not that impressive to him or her!

It's best to find one in a nearby large city you do not live in, unless you are from an area where there are plenty of high net worth people already, like West Palm or The Hamptons or Naples, etc. In other words, you don't want to be that lawyers biggest client, not by a long shot.

[brooklynite]

3. What does this have to do with Wisconsin?

Its applicable to every State with big jackpot lotteries.

The smart move is actually to hire a lawyer to create an anonymous LLC that will disburse the winnings without publicity.

[Archae]

4. I realize it happens in any state...

But these latest big winners live in Wisconsin.

[Totally Tunsie]

5. ALL lottery winners need to be really careful. n/t

[Disaffected]

7. There is nothing much better

than great wealth disparity to wreck relationships between the lottery winner and his/her friends and relatives.

Be careful what you wish for (you chances of winning are infinitesimal anyhow).