Protecting assets in lottery office pools

The chance at winning Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot is prompting many co-workers to throw their money in the same pot. Before one starts dreaming about how to spend the $425 million, though, it’s important to protect personal assets if the office pool ends up a winner.

“It often helps to just to write down the names of everybody involved, how much they’ve put in the pool, maybe even photocopy the tickets and make sure those are sent around,” said Sean Carroll, hospitality attorney with Gordon & Rees in Phoenix. “Make a paper trail as much as you can.”

Carroll said it’s not necessary to make a contract. As long as one has physical proof that he or she contributed money they should be OK.

“If you want to do a contract ahead of time, that’s fine, but why spend the money to do that if you’re not guaranteed to win it,” Carroll said.

It’s also recommended winners hire a team of money managers and attorneys to protect any winnings.

Carroll said no one wants to end up like the 44 percent of lottery winners that go broke within five years.