The first thing I would do is to call my mother-in-law, who was a partner in a Big 8/6/5/4 accounting firm, and ask her to handle the $$. Then I’d call my local Porsche dealer and have them put me on speed dial.
If you’re thinking just about the initial collection of the winnings, any existing checking account will do. A checking account is really just a number under which the bank stores, in its electronic records, the amount of money it owes you or you owe it. There is no built-in cap on the amount of money that can be kept in an account, and there is no special magic that distinguishes a millionaire’s (or corporation’s) multi-million dollar account from your everyday retail account - other than, possibly, the maximum amount that you can withdraw per day, but you can change that maximum later on.
Of course, you’d be well advised not to keep your winnings in that account for very long. You should shift them into a more lucrative investment.
Since you’ve signed the ticket prior to putting it in the safe deposit box, I would not worry too much about the remote possibility of it being stolen from there. How is someone else going to cash it with your signature in place? Plus, presumably even if they tried, you’d speak up and say, “Wait a minute, that’s my ticket and here’s a photocopy as proof.”
What does the law actually say about someone stealing the ticket, stealing your identity and cashing out? Do the still have to pay you, too, or will it be “Tough luck-We did what we are legally required to do and you are shit out of luck”?
I’m not sure that is an option. At least in CA the Feds automatically get 24% off the top of any win over $5,000 and then expect to get paid the rest in your tax filing. You don’t have an option - it’s the lottery that actually pays that out to them before you see dollar one.
I suspect it is much the same elsewhere. The IRS weren’t born yesterday.
ETA: This by the way, is why “win a house!” charity raffles never actually pay out homes. They will have a real, genuine multi-million dollar home set up for you to win, it’s all quite legit. But you have to pay 24% of the cash value to the Feds immediately on receipt. Won a $5 million home? Better have $1.2 million in cash on hand. Since most people don’t have that loose cash on hand, the raffle offers an alternative cash prize (all quite legally spelled out up front) of maybe $700k from which the taxes can just be subtracted in cash. Still worth it for the cost of a raffle ticket, but nothing near the actual grand prize. The companies that run these raffles for charities are private for-profit companies and they bank on this little tactic to earn money.
In a sense it’s win-win. The charity raises money (a percentage of ticket sales), the company running it makes money (a percentage of ticket sales) and you win a nice chunk of change. But it is also slightly scammy because almost no one ends up with the multi-million dollar home.
I suspect there is no law to cover such a circumstance, which is truly surprising, given how that happens every other day.
No insurance at all for safe deposit boxes as far as I know.
I just looked it up, and there are many companies that will insure the contents of safety deposit boxes.
I was referring to (no) Federal insurance of safety deposit boxes.
If someone steals the ticket, that’s grand theft. You will have a picture on your phone dated prior to the theft and will very likely be on the store’s security camera at the exact time that the ticket was purchased.
Here is a case of that happening.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/23/business/tennessee-lottery-store-clerk-ticket-theft
If someone steals that ticket, there is a law to punish the thief, but are there any laws that require the people that run the lottery to give you money they already gave someone else, albeit illicitly.
That’s where the attorney comes in. I’d rather give the government 40% than serve time for tax evasion.
As someone said upthread, all of the appropriate taxes will be removed before you get your payout, just like a paycheck. The Feds will get their cut and, if applicable, the State. Some States don’t tax lotto winnings.
This is mere speculation on my part, but I can’t possibly imagine any disbursement of winnings before some federal and maybe state withholding.
It’s $250K per account holder. We put our proceeds of sale from our house into CDs in our credit union. We added our niece to the account so that we would be insured for $750K.
As long as you’re planning to win the big jackpot, I recommend planning to buy the ticket in one of the states that allows you to remain anonymous and then minimize the number of people who know that you won. (Of course, if you run out and buy a new house or a Ferrari, others may guess that you’ve won.)
And isn’t it per account as well? So same bank with a checking and saving account would be insured up to $500K if I keep $250K in each?
That makes sense, although I didn’t enquire about it.
No, the insurance is per depositor.