MSN article: "So you won the lottery; now what?"
Lenona
Excerpt:
(snip)
If you value your privacy, you may have the option to collect your
winnings without a news conference, although your name and hometown
typically must be made public.
Another tip: Get an unlisted phone number as soon as you can. People
from around the globe are going to try to reach out and touch you for
loans, gifts, charitable contributions and funding for their great
business ideas.
Get your team together. At a minimum, you'll need an accountant, a
lawyer and a financial planner. Don't expect much help from the
lottery itself, because it can't risk the legal liability of offering
advice. Plenty of financial professionals will offer to assist you --
Lang said he and his co-winners received "hundreds" of pitches from
financial advisers of all stripes -- but without significant research
you won't be able to tell the crooks and incompetents from those who
know what they're talking about.
Lang said many of his encounters with these advisers weren't good. One
lawyer told Lang he could quickly prepare a trust for $17,000 -- a
trust Lang actually had done for $2,500. A financial adviser Lang
interviewed but opted not to use sent him a bill for $450.
"I sat in his office and drank a bottled water, and he wanted me to
pay $450," Lang said. "I asked him to itemize what he did for me that
was worth $450, and I never heard from him again."
You may not be able to rely on friends and family for referrals,
unless your nearest and dearest happen to be multimillionaires with
advisers skilled in managing big sums. You may instead want to find
out who advises the wealthy in your community and start your
interviews there. But don't assume the rich always know what they're
doing. Think Bernie Madoff.
(snip)
Lenona.