July's half-billion dollar Powerball jackpot winner in New Hampshire has yet to come forward, but the New Hampshire Lottery said it has heard several times from lawyers who may represent the lucky ticket-holder.
The $487 million prize was the eighth-largest jackpot in U.S. history and the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot.
Lawyers have contacted the lottery several times since the jackpot, according to New Hampshire Lottery spokeswoman Maura McCann.
"They wanted to know what the process entails," McCann said. "They were asking about the completion of a claim form, the choice between the annuitized jackpot payment or the cash payment, taxes, things like that."
McCann said the lottery has still not received any word about who the winner is or when he or she will come forward. The winner has a year from the drawing date of July 30 to claim the prize.
"We certainly hope that we'll see something over the next few days or weeks," McCann said. "We can't wait to award this prize to the lucky winner."
Sounds like the kinds of information they could have gotten off their website.
RJOh, I agree. They need to visit Lottery Post and USAMEGA.com
The lottery folks say,"They can't wait to give this money to the winner or winners." That decision is being made by the winner(s) and the lawyers.
It appears that these lucky players are getting their ducks in a row. Which most States urge us to do. Take life slow. Slow down.
They have the rest of their lives to plan out and enjoy.
Ain't the lottery GRAND!!
Forgot all about this jackpot not being claimed!
I believe that in New Hampshire a winner is allowed to claim using a Trust. They could remain anonymous this way.
I hope that their lawyers, financial advisers, and accountants know about using Trusts.
Wow NH i wonder if it could be Mr,Steve Player. Congratulations to the BIG WINNER.
The attorneys are probably looking for clarification about New Hampshire's rules on claiming a prize. There is information on a Trust claiming lottery winnings in the lottery rules section on their website. The winner(s) appear to be handling this the right way so far.
Fact: Persons claiming to be lawyers contacted the NH lottery and asked questions
FACT: All other information is open to exercise...aka, jumping to conclusions.
When the ticket is claimed more can be confirmed.
But the lawyers wouldn't run up as many billable hours if they just looked on the website.
Lol Agreed. This is why you do your due diligence and hire an attorney with lottery experience and not someone's cousin.
From the NH Lottery website:
New Hampshire state law requires the winner's name, town and amount won be available for public information in accordance with RSA 91-A. A winner's street address and phone number is not considered public information.
I found this info on the rules page of the NH lottery website. And there are also several news clips online showing lottery winners claiming through a trust in NH.
PRIZE CLAIMS
Sw 602.01 Payments.
(a) No prize shall be paid without the physical possession of a winning ticket or a valid subscription recorded in the Lottery's central computer system.
(b) Each Lottery ticket, whether instant or on-line, shall be a bearer instrument until such time as a signature is placed in the designated area on the back of the ticket.
(c) When a player has a winning ticket, he/she shall complete the reverse side of the ticket with his/her name, address and signature.
(d) Prizes, not to exceed $599, shall be paid by any:
Participating Lottery sales agent;
State liquor store; or
Lottery Commission headquarters.
(e) Prizes exceeding $599, shall be claimed at the Lottery Commission headquarters only.
(f) The claimant shall complete a winner claim form with the following:
Name;
Address;
Telephone number;
Social security number; and
Claimant signature and date.
(g) The Commission shall prepare a prize check and a federal W2-G, Certain Gambling Winnings, form which shall be signed by the winner. Pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 3402(q)(1) and the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, Sec. 101 (a), Table 7, prizes exceeding $5,000 shall be subject to applicable federal income tax withholding.
Source. #7167, eff 12-21-99; amd by #7705, eff 6-8-02; ss by #8365,
eff 6-2-05
Sw 602.02 Identification.
(a) At the time a claim of over $599 is made, the claimant shall furnish any of the following documentation to the Commission for purposes of identification:
A motor vehicle driver's license issued by the state of New Hampshire, or a valid driver's license issued by another state, or province of Canada, which bears the name, address and date of birth of the licensee;
An identification card issued by the director of motor vehicles under the provisions of RSA 260:21, or any picture identification card issued by another state which bears the name, address and date of birth of the individual;
An armed services identification card; or
A valid passport from the United States or from a country with whom the United States maintains diplomatic relations.
(b) Photographic identification presented under this section shall be consistent with the appearance of the person, shall not be expired, and shall be correct and free of alteration, erasure, blemish, or other impairment.
(c) If the claimant is under the age of 16, and does not have photographic identification, the claimant shall present a valid social security card for verification by the Commission.
(d) If the claimant is a trust, the individual named as trustee shall furnish photographic identification to the Commission at the time of the claim. Acceptable forms of identification shall be those documents listed in Sw 602.02(a).
(e) If the claim is being filed by another individual on behalf of the claimant, the claimant's original picture identification or a photostatic copy of the claimant's picture identification as well as the filing individual's original picture identification shall be presented to the Commission at the time of the claim.
The attorney can be named as trustee until the money is claimed. There would be a separate private trust agreement between the attorney and the winner and the trust could be revocable by the winner and end 5 seconds after the money is claimed...so the winner is the successor trustee. Trust agreements are not public documents generally.
Anybody can form a trust and the lottery will cut the check in the name of the trust. But the name of the winner is still public information in NH.
Oops part e. What a ripoff then. The trust is useless.
Well I have read several local news articles of winning tickets from NH of both the MM & PB as well as tri-state mega bucks who claimed their winnings through a trust and I see no mention of the winners names, in every case it's states the winners remained anonymous. So this seems to demonstrate the ability for the winner to have anonymity if they follow this route. This has also been done successfully in other states including TX,TN,and CT.
all lawyers are liars and they are licking their chops to get control of this persons lottery win. they will muddle and confuse the winner in order to get their hands on as much of it as they can. of course there will be plenty left for the winner (too much in fact) but to allow these vultures to control your money is criminal. the problem is that there is no way anyone can keep track of or know what to do with that much money anyway. you think you can but you cannot. financial planners, lawyers, accountants aren't regulated by anyone and can tell you,advise you any way they want to in order to benefit themselves. oh by the way they say there was a maintenance fee of .0025% due to the inactivity on your investment that we made for you on filipino bananas futures due to inactivity. or due to the middle east turmoil your libyan oil contracts were taxed another .023 %. the lucky winners have so much money they won't question them or even care while they are being slowly and methodically cleansed and singed. they will claim they made a great investment for you and prove it but only to overshadow the bad ones and make you feel better about trusting them. sure they will only nibble at your money and the winner won't miss it or even care after a while. the problem is there is no solution for anyone to be able to handle all this money even though everyone thinks they can. nothing but headaches and problems if you try to keep track of it. people buy these mansions with rooms they will never go into and buy yachts and vehicles they will use once or twice and have to spend their time worrying about maintaining them. how many vacations can you take before you are dog tired of it and end up just staying home puttering around your garden to kill time with your tens of millions of dollars that you really have no use for.
I thought it had already been claimed? Hope they didn't lose the ticket!
Sounds like they hired the wrong Lawyer or one that's ripping them off?
If I were the winner I would call the Lottery office for Information on the Best Lawyer to hire!
I hope their just having a house built or something like that so when they claim their money they have a place to go.
Sorry but I will claim my money as soon as possible in a Trust & remain anonymous.
Of course we are in a situation and need some money like Months or a few yrs ago would've been GREAT, it cost a lot of money being in a wheelchair and trying to live only on Disability.
THANK YOU, I TOTALLY AGREE!!!
don't bother with a trust. just keep a low profile. there are so many lottery winners that no one will bother you. actually don't play mm or pb and stick to your state lotto's to fly under the radar if you win. there is no such thing as a best lawyer. they are all liars or crooks (some worse than others). win under 4 or 5 million and you don't need a lying lawyer to handle it. probably a halfway decent accountant could handle it. lawyers and financial planners are not honest and you will never find one that is. in law school the only class that holds the interest of students is the one where they teach you how to extort money from people if they happen to come to you for investment advice. they teach this and students and instructors cackle with each other and toss around ideas and ways to accomplish this time proven way of separating people from their money. bottom line is you cannot become a successful lawyer until you learn how to properly sue people or bilk affluent ones out of their money.
Thank You AGAIN, I wanted to say the same about Lawyers I've always said that but didn't want to hurt any ones feelings, OH WELL WTF DO I CARE ANYWAY TO LATE IN LIFE FOR THAT! LOL
I do mostly play out in-State Lotto but we do buy a MM I don't want or need the JP a Mill would do, we rarely play the PB & not only when it's big just out of the blue. I worked in Financial & for a CPA friend for many yrs full & pt-time, she wanted me to take over her Business when she was ready to retire but I couldn't I was making too much @ my other job at that time now I wish I would have(hind sight)!
The lottery may allow them top be anonymous but who makes up a trust can be looked up via state records.
The winner(s) will get or share over $200 mil after taxes.
Do you think they're worried about it?
I must have missed the class on extortion of money. I took a year of Constitutional law, civil and criminal procedure, federal rules of evidence, property law, torts, criminal law, federal taxation and contract law. And that was just as a 1L.
Don't bother with Faber; I don't remember him ever saying anything nice to or about anyone. I can't decide if he's just a miserable person all the time or if someone pees in his cornflakes and he comes in here to rant and whine.
I'm also wondering if he's the ghost of ee cummings.
Lol lol no caps.
Is this gonna turn out to be another version of The Tipton Saga? Stay tuned.......
I would like to think that the winner,winners, are taking safe steps to assure a safe future!
you probably fell asleep while attending all those insipid, boring and useless classes on all that legal crap. how much of that knowledge did you retain and use in the real world. the only thing a lawyer lives for is to buy charged off unsecured credit card debt for pennies on the dollar and then try to intimidate the weak into paying 100% of it back by threatening them with court action in some mickey mouse courthouse. you've heard all the lawyer jokes and they all belong in the bottom of some cesspool.
i just tell it like it is. not miserable at all and don't need you to decide anything. not greedy like most on here who don't play lotteries unless they can win 300m or more and are intrigued by rankings of lottery jackpot totals, or over and over again if they can remain anonymous if they win, or if someone happens to squander 3% of their jackpot people criticize and condemn them for it. or the idiots who win 200m and want to invest and save it all (for what). or the people who think there is such a thing as a lucky state or store because their state or store never wins. or worry about how much tax they're going to have to pay if they win. or sneer at their state lottery prizes as too minimal to bother with. i have more but it's time for my frosted flakes.
Well, YOU need to decide to use a paragraph now 'n then. You are a miserable person. I pity your family for having to be around you.
If you don't like reading those topics you mentioned, then just stop, easy as that. Quit whining, you puke.
Lol Such a jealous sourpuss. Yes, you should pay your debts.
I'd say yes, they are concerned about their anonymity, cause as you said they just became $200M richer. The fact that the winner(s) haven't come forward yet reinforces this point.
Right. Because the only possible advantage of using a trust is anonymity.
maybe lawyers should find a real job instead of pretending to represent creditors, lying to people about who owns the debt and growing beards to hide their greedy faces while trying to intimidate the weak into paying them. and france sucks.
go chase some illegals back to the rio grande and then cross over with them. not smart enough to escape from that hell-hole of a state i guess.
It is useless in the states that still disclose the winners name and/or allow a 3rd party to FOIA the information.
Lol lol You sound like a spoiled brat.
Yep, I'd be willin' to swap all the Ma$$holes like him for some illegals; they'd probably work harder, be better Americans and I know they wouldn't whine as much.
Hard to find any fault with your response.
Reported that the winners are coming forward on Monday