Lottery winner facing tax fraud trial dies

Of course you can't completely trust your advisors either, I mean you can't just let them have free reign over your assets while you "retire" and don't have a hand in the managing of things to see where all the money is going, you need to take an active role and be the one who makes the real, final decisions with YOUR money, that's why they're advisors not partners you’re supposed to listen to their advise and come up with a decision which should be done after doing your own research, not just blindly follow what they say, same goes for anyone else that is working for you to manage your assets. Even with good intentions these people aren't infallible and just because it's their job it doesn’t mean they’re not immune to stupidity and you never go all, half or even a quarter in into a single, potentially risky investment no matter how much of a “sure thing” it might be.

You have to educate yourself to the point where you can get a good handle on things and not be completely clueless as to what's going on, you need to be constantly learning. That's what a lot of these people don’t seem to do. They think for some reason they could get away with not paying Uncle Sam his share to squander. It's hard to fathom how so many people don't even consider the taxes they're going to have or think that the initial tax taken initially is all they'll have to pay. A lot of us think five, ten million dollars (lump sum or annutity) is a lot of money and to 98% of us, it is. It's probably more than we'll ever see but you'll find out that it won’t last forever if you’re foolish with it. There's no such thing as an infinite amount of money, you're not the federal reserve, you can’t just print more money, which is isn’t a good thing either, but that’s another issue that’s really far off topic. Then of course, there's the excessive gambling....

Okay, I'm half rambling about another story I just read from just over a year ago about a 1995 Wisconsin winner (Andrew Cicero) of 5.5M that went broke and is or was suing blaming advisors from an investment firm. From the story they apparently invested nearly everything in stocks, just before the tech bubble burst, which as his lawyer said, was breathtakingly irresponsible. Of course Mr. Cicero also apparently thought it "smart" to sell what was left of his annuity without any consideration of the taxes he’d incur.

I know we’re all armchair quarterbacks since we haven’t been in this situation, but I’d like to think most of us have learned from these stories as to what NOT to do...

Do ya think the gov't is trying to get a lot here in taxes

sold the annuity to Singer Asset and Finance for two lump sums, $1.59 million to Alex Toth and $1.49 million to Rhoda Toth.

In total, the agreement states, Rhoda Toth owes the government $1.1 million and her husband owed $1.4 million

You better watch out you better not cry the tax man is coming to town.

Of course you can't completely trust your advisors either, I mean you can't just let them have free reign over your assets while you "retire" and don't have a hand in the managing of things to see where all the money is going, you need to take an active role and be the one who makes the real, final decisions with YOUR money, that's why they're advisors not partners you’re supposed to listen to their advise and come up with a decision which should be done after doing your own research, not just blindly follow what they say, same goes for anyone else that is working for you to manage your assets. Even with good intentions these people aren't infallible and just because it's their job it doesn’t mean they’re not immune to stupidity and you never go all, half or even a quarter in into a single, potentially risky investment no matter how much of a “sure thing” it might be.

You have to educate yourself to the point where you can get a good handle on things and not be completely clueless as to what's going on, you need to be constantly learning. That's what a lot of these people don’t seem to do. They think for some reason they could get away with not paying Uncle Sam his share to squander. It's hard to fathom how so many people don't even consider the taxes they're going to have or think that the initial tax taken initially is all they'll have to pay. A lot of us think five, ten million dollars (lump sum or annutity) is a lot of money and to 98% of us, it is. It's probably more than we'll ever see but you'll find out that it won’t last forever if you’re foolish with it. There's no such thing as an infinite amount of money, you're not the federal reserve, you can’t just print more money, which is isn’t a good thing either, but that’s another issue that’s really far off topic. Then of course, there's the excessive gambling....

Okay, I'm half rambling about another story I just read from just over a year ago about a 1995 Wisconsin winner (Andrew Cicero) of 5.5M that went broke and is or was suing blaming advisors from an investment firm. From the story they apparently invested nearly everything in stocks, just before the tech bubble burst, which as his lawyer said, was breathtakingly irresponsible. Of course Mr. Cicero also apparently thought it "smart" to sell what was left of his annuity without any consideration of the taxes he’d incur.

I know we’re all armchair quarterbacks since we haven’t been in this situation, but I’d like to think most of us have learned from these stories as to what NOT to do...