What to do if you win the lottery

a record-breaking jackpots from Mega Millions and Powerball have hit a combined nearly 1 billion dollars the Mega Millions jackpot is currently 654 million just 2 million shy of the game's all-time record and the Powerball jackpot has hit 345 million both numbers are expected to rise so we want you to be prepared joining us now on the set to tell us what you should do should you be the lottery winner is Jason Kurland yet otherwise known as the lottery lawyer thank you so many of us have already spent most of that money in our head so you are the right person to talk to you you've talked to a lot of lottery winners so you're the person that they come to you know tell me about some of the number one first thing you tell them to do the first thing I tell them do is be quiet right I know they're gonna want to go to the top of their roof and scream I'm the new billionaire right but I stay quiet because the timeyou of the drawing and the time of the press conference if you have to go to a press conference is your last period of normalcy right your last chance to kind of no one knows who you are people aren't banging on your door charities investment opportunities all those things so you need to kind of grow into this so stay quiet you don't want neighbors banging on your door right away right a lot of people I mean what's always nice is there are stories generally out there where people say I just won you know half a million dollars or a billion dollars or whatever it is but I'm gonna stay doing my job I'm out of here and I'm gonna buy a boat I'm gonna buy my family you know big house and I'm gonna employ all my cousins how do you resist the urge to do the ladder you know everybody is different so you know some people want to keep working some people don't want to spend right away you know I have certain clients where I have to say you know you really do have a lot of money you can you know buy a new house you can move and they're like no this is my life I like it and then I have the other you know side of the coin where people are like yeah you know I'm out of here you know I saw an island that I could buy for thirty million dollars and you know paying wishes and caviar dreams right right and then so then I tell them listen you know I gave them the education of you know how you can make this money grow and unless you spend upfront the more you're gonna earn an interest and they so as they get it they understand okay I'm not gonna spend so much right away let me see what life has to offer and then we'll go from there I know with some states it's mandatory that you come forward you have to give your name you have to do this press conference but if you live in one of those states is there any way to get around that do you remember that lottery winner who you know did the press conference with the emoji mask on I mean I don't know if you could even get away with that here but is there a way to get out of having everyone know who you are some states it's impossible it really is you know there have been some lawsuits and you know if a winner really wants to go that route you know they can go but it's a scary it's a scary road to go and you're not gonna have that money for a long time so if you if you challenge it and you know go to court you know maybe six months you don't have the money that's a lot of interest you're giving away and you just want to get moving with your life so a lot of states it's impossible so what is the best way to clean the prize should you take the lump sum pay the taxes up front you're gonna get hit pretty hard with taxes or do you recommend taking the annuity payments where you know you can it's almost like a salary you can be rest assured that you're going to get paid you know a couple million dollars a year you'll pay taxes on that but you are confident you'll never be broke right almost all the time the lump sum is better you know if you're gonna be able to invest that wisely conservatively it'll grow much quicker if you if you have it in your hands you know once in a while someone will come to me the person who wanted by the island for instance I said you know what there's something called an annuity maybe that's for you only in the rare circumstance where I think that they're not going to be able to control tactically speaking can you leave the if you take for example a annuity payment and god forbid something happens and you you know are not able to receive that payment can you leave that in your will to a beneficiary you can and if you do it the right way you know you'll form a trust where it automatically will go but you know there are other if it's not done correctly the estate gets taxed upfront under that so that's something else the state will get tax up front I'm the total number even if you're taking the lumps or even if you it's not done correctly so that's right there yeah it's bankrupt some states in the past you have to be careful so you talk to us about the person who wanted to buy an island do you have any other lottery stories Larry you want our story to tell us about I'm have a million story you know a few weeks ago a client one in two hundred and forty five million in in Staten Island and you know he didn't even know he bought the ticket put it on his kitchen table went on vacation for a week so we're just sitting there on his kitchen table for you know stiff wind came through or something like if you don't claim it what happens if you don't claim it it goes away you and that's a strict deadline so every day there's a deadline like in New York every year if you if you're 366 days and you say oh I had a you know I was in a coma whatever it is it's it's it makes it okay rarely you know I'll probably buy one today like I always tell everyone you're buying the dream right you for two dollars you know you can't really dream that you're gonna win unless you buy that tickets for two dollars for the day of you know I always give the people is you know you just need to buy one I tell my dad all the time just buy one he goes out and he buys like $100 worth of ticket yeah and you know and he's he's an architect he's not an idiot he went to Columbia University he's like a smart guy and I'm like dad the odds are you know the same whether you buy one or you buy 50 and he's like oh I'm playing your birthday play mom's birthday I'm playing like something right before you got here I go what are the odds that Vlad is gonna be the wet blanket my entire life I've only bought maybe one or two lottery tickets and I think I did it as a goof and I don't even know if I'm looking at the number so well for all I know I could have been you could have been one of those could have been you don't see me here tomorrow right do not know exactly what happened well if you know if I don't if you're not coming in and you won the lottery take me with you thank you very much my pleasure sting thank you

Channel: CBS News

Views: 1,293,783

Keywords: video, live streaming, live video, cbsn, Mega Millions, Powerball jackpots, record-breaking heights

Id: 7sX9CwVGHn4

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2018