… in the unlikely event I ever do win, the very last thing I’d want to do is deal with the influx of opportunists, moneygrubbers and golddiggers waiting to pounce, and these include certain people in my family. I’d prefer to have the money and live my life pretty much the way I do now – quiet and unassuming – with no TV newscameras, no magazine interviews, nothin’ but the annual check.
It occurred to me that maybe I can should still be able to expect a reasonable amount of privacy in a way that doesn’t make me the target of identity theives – by even if I did win umpteen million bucks. I mean, I’d pay the taxes and all, and agree to minimal publicity to promote the lottery, but are there steps I can take to actively keep my actual name and face out of it?
F’rinstance-- could I get my brother to sign a contract whereby I pay him to do all the public gladhanding and photo ops so that HE’S publically identified as the lottery winner – but in actuality it’s me, my winnings, I’d pay the taxes, I’d get to stay out of the lottery fervor? Could I make this arrangement with a stranger off the street?
Could I employ the services of a doctor, lawyer or priest who redeems my ticket on my behalf, cites “confidentiality” and does all the gladhanding and camera-waving for me? They can also do the interviews where they discuss my desire for privacy.
Can I show up to the lottery offices with a mask? Can I insist that I be handed over my check off-camera – or if I MUST be on camera, can I do so with my face in silhouette and voice distortion, or with digitally blurred video and audio, referring to me as Mr. X?
No doubt the situation differs by jurisdiction. Here most prizes are paid as lump sums, not annual payments. We also have a system of player registration so that, in most cases, the Lotto officials will contact the major-prize winner directly to tell him of his good luck. The winner can then choose to remain anonymous if he wishes. It’s a relative anonymity, rather than an absolute anonymity though. If you win, then your bank is certainly going to find out when you deposit the cheque. And the tax office will find out as soon as you start declaring all of the additional income earnings on the prize money. And so on…
I think in the PA lottery, they must reveal the names of winners. It has something to do with keeping the lottery honest-that way, they have to verify that people DO win, so someone can’t accuse them of fraud.
Most (all?) US lotteries include as part of the prize-claiming rules that the winner releases the use of his or her image for purposes of promoting the lottery.
I ran across a site which answered this question a while back. Your lawyer sets up a trust, generally with himself as the main trustee, and you as the beneficiary. You give the winning ticket over to the trust, which is its only asset. The trust redeems the ticket, and the trustee is the only contact with the lottery commission. When the trust has received the money, it is paid out, by the trust to the beneficiary (you). When all the money has been paid out, the trust is dissolved.
Obviously, you have to be able to trust the lawyer.
In our state, they publish a list of the lottery winners, and every other one is named “Anonymity Trust”, “MYOB Trust”, “Ehrewon Trust”, etc.
I’m 99% sure that in the U.K. National Lottery (and possibly in the EuroMillions) you can request to remain anonymous, which works to a certain degree. In the cases of the regular wins nobody cares who has won, it is only in the cases of multiple rollovers where the jackpot becomes much more significant that the newspapers start a hunt for the winner (who nearly always choses to remain anonymous). It doesn’t take long for the newspapers to dig out who has won, usually from tip offs from “friends” or neighbours. It doesn’t take a genius to come to the conclusion that the guy in the 15 year old rust-bucket car who recently bought a Ferrari and a Bentley may have been the winner.
It’s unlikely (but hardly inconceivable) that someone would actually deposit a US $150 million winning check into their bank checking account, but I get your point: hiding overnight millions is difficult. That’s why it’s important to get top-drawer financial advisers and let them shield it for you. Electronic wire transfers make such transactions quick, easy and virtually untraceable.
If I went the attorney route, I’d find an established firm, not Joe Ambulance Chaser. Next, contractually obligate the consulting attorney not to disclose your identity whatsoever. Also make sure you relocate to another home, change your telephone number, have someone screen your mail, and occasionally look over your shoulder. Problem is, in this era of data mining, poorly protected personal information, and tabloids, it would be difficult to conceal your identity for long.
The headaches would be considerable, but I’d be willing to suffer them.
Scowl menancingly when they take your picture, and it’s unlikely it would be used for publicity purposes. You may be legally required to let them photograph you, but you don’t have to like it!
I just websearched the question and found a Virginia Lottery FAQ page that specifically said you can’t use a trust or LLC to claim a prize anonymously. But other states may permit it.
Dewey Finn: Link? I must be on some other Virginia Lottery FAQ page.
The idea of using a proxy is different. It’s like: my attorney (and maybe a priest, too) shows up at the Lottery Comission with my winning ticket, stresses my extreme desire for privacy, offers up a proxy who has entered into a contract with me to use his name, address, ID and image as the PUBLIC winner of the lottery and does all the crap I’d rather avoid, like the big check publicity shoot, and interviews and deaing with sob story letters, phone calls and distant reatives who suddenly need tummy tucks. Meanwhile PRIVATELY payments are paid directly to me, not to a trust: all taxes are paid by me, all my public debts and obligations are paid by me. so there’s no question I’m trying to defraud anybody. I am unquestionably trying to distance myself from publicity and celebrity.
You can vote in shareholders meetings by proxy and marry by proxy and these are legally recognized. Why not claim a multimillion dollar prize the same way?
As for your proxy idea, my understanding is that whoever shows up with the winning ticket gets the money (and the publicity). Whatever agreement you’ve made with the proxy isn’t the concern of the lottery authorities. So you’d be better be sure that you’ve got an ironclad agreement with the proxy. Otherwise the proxy might just walk away with the money (perhaps in conspiracy with the lawyer, so you’d better trust him as well).
I don’t know…I think weeks, nay months of fun could be had jerking around people who want to leach off of my winnings. Lead them to believe that you will be giving money to people who demonsrate some bizarre talent. Make them pubically humiliate themselves, then don’t give them a dime.
One of my personal fantasies in winning the lottery involves offering to donate millions to a liberal university…but only if it is used to endow a conservative chair in something.
The major prizes here are nowhere near as large as the rather obscene amounts that get handed out in the US. The average weekly prize is probably $3-5 million. I think the largest prize has been $30 million, several years ago.
delaware allows you to be anon when claiming a prize.
i’ve noticed if you win under say 80 million or so, there tends to be less media whoopla than if you win 180 million. so just buy tickets for the lesser prizes.
I’ve thought about this quite a bit as well. If I were to win the lottery (unlikely; I buy maybe 6 tickets/year), I would want to have it kept as quiet as reasonably possible under the circumstances. A couple ideas I threw around:[ul]
[li]Use my middle name as the name I “go by” when I claim the winnings. This will likely be the name used in the publicity releases and news articles, and if it’s a name people don’t associate with me, they may not notice. This also shouldn’t be a problem with the bank (you can have them make the paychecks to FirstInital MiddleName You)[/li][li]Wait until a day that has some really huge news event to claim the prize. A poliltical election’s good, or a huge national issue. This way, a human interest story like this will most likely be buried or shelved altogether on the local news.[/li][li]If necessary, set up “temporary residence” in another town or city (I live in CA, so this would be more productive than, say, Delaware). Just rent a cheapo apartment for a couple months (heck, you’re a millionare–you’ll earn it back) somewhere geographically separate than you. Then, a few months later (when your big news event occurs), you can claim it and give the other address as your residence. This means the news outlets near there will be more likely to cover it than the ones where you live, plus you’ll be MiddleName You from SomewhereElse, so people again won’t notice. This, again, shouldn’t be a big deal since the lottery’s not going to mail anything important to you there–just cancel the rent once the money’s in the bank (direct deposit, of course)[/li][li]If you think there will be a photo involved, do some quickie disguise work. Glasses (if you don’t wear them), hair color (easy to change and change back), and unusual clothes (stuff your friends wouldn’t associate with you) should do the trick (since most of you will be hiding behind a big check anyway).[/li][/ul]This may seem extreme, but when I say I wouldn’t want anyone to know, I mean Nobody. My wife, of course, and maybe my Mom, but that’s it.
Not only will this decrease the unwanted attention you have from needy “friends”, distant relations, and strangers, but if you do adopt a complete and total plan of deception, you will be forced to restrain yourself from conspicuous consumption. Personally, I’m more interested in keeping such a big thing private than in buying an expensive sportscar or wardrobe. Save, invest, and treat ourselves in non-showy ways, and people won’t notice any difference that will raise alarms.
See? I’ve got it all planned out. Now, I only have to win…
