Let’s say that I’ve won upwards of £80m on the Euro Lottery, but I’ve since gone anonymous and don’t want anybody, not even my family (I’m the youngest child - still at uni), to know.
But the thing is, my family has massive debts (nearly £200k, I believe) and rents a home and barely gets by every month.
If I try the “cash through letter-box” approach, they might get suspicious and turn it into the cops.
They’re also highly religious (Christian), so that might be a factor?
What do you think? How would you help them?
And if I try to pay off their debts - won’t they be able to trace who paid off their debts or who’s paying off their bills?
The “cash through letter-box” approach will fail because they’ll figure out it’s you. Send me the cash, I’ll repackage it and send it to them from a fake address telling them it’s an inheritance from a long lost relative who is a clergyman. You seem like a nice guy, so I won’t charge you anything but the postage.
The easy thing would probably be to make a (cash) donation to the church and ask them to give it to your parents.
The problem I see is that someone who racked up 80K in debt would probably do it again in short order if it was all paid off. You’d almost be better off setting up some sort of trust fund, through the church, with a lawyer. I’m thinking out loud here. Maybe, set up an account with 100K in it. They get 40K now to take a big chunk out of their debt and then, say, a few thousand each month to keep working away at it BUT, they’d have to work with someone who helps people in that situation. This person would make sure they’re not only on track, but look appear to be changing their ways, if anything goes astray, the money goes back to you.
I think the best way to keep it anonymous is that the debt/money educator reports back to the church, the church reports to your accountant/lawyer and your lawyer releases more money each month. The church should keep you anonymous, they do that with donors from time to time. It’ll help if your lawyer doesn’t mention where the money is coming from to begin with.
Now, if this 80K was racked up for a reason (accident/illness/unemployment) as opposed to someone just spending money, then I’d say, just go have a talk with their priest/pastor and let him hand them the money (all at once).
If they racked up this debt through bad financial management they will be in debt again soon after you pay off their bills. In fact gifting people who make bad decisions with financial assistance often has the opposite effect of helping them as lack of money was the only thing preventing them from digging even deeper holes and destroying themselves entirely. Winning the lottery destroys as many lives as it uplifts.
If they think there’s a golden goose parceling out money people rarely behave well or responsibly. You need to attach any assistance to responsible financial behavior.
Hire a lawyer.
There once was a show called The Millionaire where a lawyer would call on someone different each week and tell them that a mysterious benefactor who wished to remain anonymous wanted to give them a million dollars. The rest of the episode covered how the money changed their lives, and the lawyer observing it all.
If you want to do something anonymously, nothing really beats hiring someone who cannot be legally compelled to say who he works for.
Working with their clergy is also a good plan (as was suggested above). Give it to the church, and tell them to keep 10% and pass the rest along to that specific family. When he suggests there might be others who are more deserving, simply say that true charity is given not because the recipient deserves it, but simply because they need it.
Sometimes you can pay bills such as utilities anonymously. Beyond that it probably gets more difficult. I tried to buy my friend a washer last year without telling her. I picked one out, paid, had the Lowe’s guy call and leave a message to set up delivery, and left. Two weeks later I had to own up because she thought they were scamming her and wouldn’t take their calls.
The details of this will need some working out, but this is a good outline of a method:
Hire a lawyer. Have the lawyer set up an account / trust / whatever.
Have the lawyer distribute a fixed (or variable, up to you) amount of money each year to each member of your family – and this is the important part – INCLUDING YOU.
The lawyer informs each donee that the money comes with the following restrictions:
Under no circumstances (other than a court order) may the donee disclose TO ANYONE that they are getting this money.
Under no circumstances may the donee attempt to find out where the money is coming from. I.e., who the donor is, where the money came from, etc.
Any violation of rules 1 or 2 will result in the suspension or termination of future gifts.
The donor may, at any time and without any notice, increase, decrease, or terminate the gifts at the donor’s sole discretion.
If anyone ever asks the donee about these monetary gifts, the only acceptable answer the donee may give is “I don’t know what you are talking about”.
At some future time, the donor or his agent may ask about the money, testing the donee’s discretion. Any answer other than the answer given in 5 may result in the suspension of termination of future gifts.
The lawyer is allowed only to tell the donee that the donor is “someone you know who wishes to remain anonymous”. The lawyer is also instructed to tell the donee that the donor’s anonymity is of prime importance to the donor and ANY violations of rule 1 or 2 will have severe consequences.
So what does this do? It allows you to distribute money to the family members you want to help. It also prevents them from talking to anyone about the money they are getting.
Everyone is curious, though, so each donee is going to be really curious who is donating the money. Maybe they try something (they think is untraceable) to determine who the donor is. Even if they are somehow able to get a list of the donees, your name will be on that list, too, lessening suspicion that you are the source.
This arrangement also prevents the donees from asking you about where your newfound wealth is coming from. If they do ask, all you need say is “I don’t know what you’re talking about”. Then at the next year’s gift time, have the lawyer send them a letter saying that, due to their indiscretion, their gift for this year has been suspended. If no further indiscretions occur, their gifts may resume next year.
Have the lawyer send out a suspension every once in a while to a random family member to prevent the donees from using the suspension to determine that you are the donor. (A determined donee could ask one family member a year about the money. The year they get suspended tells them who the donor is.)
Need to modify those restrictions a wee bit, as large gifts are taxable.
Do #1 needs to be modified to permit disclosing it to the government, and to one’s tax professional.
And #5 needs to permit an answer of “it was anonymous” if the question is coming from a taxation agency, your tax guy, a policeman, a prosecutor, etc.
No lawyer is going to be party to something that could require someone to lie on the stand.
In the US, not every state has a lottery (43 of them do, I think. 1 more has created one recently or will very soon). Of those that do, I believe 38/43 require the winner to be public, i.e. not anonymous. You try that in those places and it would be obvious to your family. If they can’t connect the dots, then maybe they need a trust or something.
"Dear Smith Family,
I see you have fallen on hard times. Therefore, I have enclosed £10,000 to help you get through it.
It’s a shame you had to fess up but it makes a pretty funny/cute story!