Children won’t be the only ones looking to score a sweet jackpot on Monday night. While they are trick-or-treating, their parents may be trying to win a prize that could pay for billions of fun-size Snickers.
For only the second time in Powerball’s 30-year history, the jackpot for the next drawing, scheduled for Halloween night, has reached an estimated $1 billion.
It’s the fifth-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history, according to Powerball, and the second-largest in Powerball history, behind only the $1.586 billion payout in 2016 to three winners in California, Florida and Tennessee, which set a world record.
The jackpot for Monday increased to an estimated $1 billion — or a lump sum of $497 million — from $825 million after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Saturday night, according to Powerball.
The last Powerball jackpot was won in early August, when a ticket sold in Pennsylvania became worth $207 million, officials said. That was followed by 37 consecutive drawings without a grand-prize winner.
Monday’s drawing is enough to change your life many times over. But the odds of winning are minuscule, just one in 292 million.
So you’re probably not going to claim the jackpot. But what should you do if you win? Experts say a winner should seek help from a reputable lawyer, a financial adviser or an accountant.
Winning a 10-figure payout could bring with it very real ghosts and goblins: relatives and acquaintances asking for money, mismanaged wealth leading to financial ruin, or scary questions like “What is my purpose in life?” prompting an existential crisis.
Your first decision should be an easy one, said Robert Pagliarini, a financial adviser in California who specializes in “sudden wealth” clients. If your state allows it, you should remain anonymous, he said, calling that a “no-brainer decision.” Long-lost friends and family members, along with strangers, are likely to come out of the woodwork asking for money, he added.
Your next decision is tricker: whether to take the lump sum or an annuity, which for Powerball is spread over 29 years. Mr. Pagliarini said he would personally take the lump sum, believing that he — and others who are responsible with money — could make more by investing it. But he said he would advise most clients to take the annuity. He asks clients several questions to figure out which route to take: Have you had addiction problems? Are you a pleaser or can you easily say “no” to family and friends?
“The great advantage with an annuity is you get to make some very poor financial decisions throughout the year, and you get a brand-new start the next year,” he said.
“I would hope that after seven, eight, nine years of really bad decisions,” he added, “you might by year eight or nine get things figured out. Then you’ve got another 20-plus years.”
Many big lottery winners have gone bankrupt over the years and faced other personal problems.
Beyond financial planning, the tragedy of winning the lottery, Mr. Pagliarini said, is that it can change relationships. Turning down requests for money may make you feel guilty, while granting them could make you angry.
He said honest conversations with friends and family would be necessary, along with assessments about what you want to offer and what others are willing to accept from you. The approach will be different for each person, he said.
“Certainly there are aspects to money that can improve your life,” Mr. Pagliarini said. “The problem,” he added, “is people go into it feeling like, ‘Oh my god, I won this money and now everything is going to be perfect.’ That doesn’t happen.”
