Can you win the $1 billion lottery jackpot and stay anonymous? It depends

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Transcript

00:00If you win the billion-dollar Powerball jackpot, can you remain anonymous?

00:07It completely depends on the state you live in.

00:10A lot of states have passed laws allowing anonymity to Powerball lottery winners.

00:16Some states have a modified system, and other states have no privacy laws at all with respect to winners.

00:24Eleven states will allow you to remain anonymous if you hit the jackpot.

00:28Now, if not, many states allow you to set up a trust or an LLC to claim the money and keep your name out of the headlines.

00:35The winner could be a limited liability company that I've created underneath the trust to own the ticket.

00:44The limited liability company has a manager.

00:47The manager then creates this trust to claim the ticket, so that way we have layers of protection.

00:52So that way the identity of the winners is not exposed.

00:55Some states won't even allow that and require a natural person to claim the winnings.

01:01One lawyer we spoke with said to get around that, you can create a group of people to claim the ticket, similar to an office pool winning.

01:08So as long as you have a group of people, which is more than one, that's a group,

01:12then you have the ability to have someone be the sacrificial lamb, essentially, to be the authorized representative.

01:19They're not going to sit there and identify all 50 people of the group.

01:23So if you're the big winner, what should you do first?

01:26Well, the first step is don't tell people about it.

01:30Before making any other decisions, financial advisors say it's important to bring in people around you who can help you make the right choices.

01:38Your team really should consist of at least three different people.

01:43There should be a tax expert on hand.

01:47There should be a lawyer on hand.

01:51And you should also be working with a financial advisor.

01:55Get a good experienced person to lead your team.

01:58You want that quarterback on your team.

02:00You want someone to be the GPS of your team to keep everyone else in line.

02:05With that team in place, you'll need to decide if you want the lump sum or annuity payments.

02:11It is the most significant financial decision someone who wins the lottery will ever make.

02:19When you take a lump sum, if you start making bad decisions, there is no do-over.

02:24There's no get-out-of-jail-free card.

02:27If you spend down your money or give it away or make some bad investment decisions and you run out of money, that's it.

02:36It's game over.

02:38If you are the lucky winner and have to figure out the next steps, all the financial experts say to be careful.

02:44It's important to be safe with this.

02:46In this day and age, there's a lot of very, you know, bad and shady things that can happen.

02:53And just be cautious about it.

02:56Understand that not everybody out there has your best interest at heart.

03:00For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan.

03:02If you want more on this story, download the Straight Arrow News app or visit san.com.