Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Win the Lottery? Stay Anonymous, or No?

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With the big lottery drawing over, and the winners slowly being announced, there’s some talk about some of the winners remaining anonymous.  Apparently, it’s only an option in certain states, so some have no choice.  But, if you won a major lottery, would you remain anonymous if you had the option?

Lottery Winners Barbara and Michael Ayres © by Montage Communications

In some ways, at least locally, I would think it would be nearly impossible to truly remain anonymous.  There are certain services, like financial planners, investment advisers, and even bank tellers that you’d need the use of.  And, despite the fact that most of them have some ethical requirement to keep your information confidential, it seems like word always leaks out in some way.  Eventually, anyways.  On a more national and global level, it might be a bit easier to maintain your anonymity.

I think I’d like to attempt to remain anonymous should I win a lottery.  Publicly announcing it is sure to bring an onslaught of people, businesses, and organizations to your door (figuratively and literally) looking for funds.  There’s even a chance, albeit small, that you could end up with threats of injury should you say no to a handout.  Obviously, friends and family are going to find out, and some will likely ask for money, but I’d rather deal with just a few people asking rather than half the country.

Of course, making the announcement that you’ve hit it big has it’s upsides too.  You’d be an instant celebrity of sorts.  Depending on the size of the winnings, locally for sure.  If you’d have won the Mega Millions lottery and not had to share it, you’d have likely made it onto several lists of the richest people.  Done properly, the money could be used for lots of good, and that usually draws publicity too.

What would you do?  Anonymous or not?