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[This Just In]

HIT THE JACKPOT
Got-rich-quick camp

BY NINA WILLDORF

Last week, four folks experienced the American gambler’s dream come true: they won a collective $295 million from the bloated Powerball lottery, which was ripe for the pickin’.

And now, so are they. Each opted for a lump sum of $41.4 million, which taxes shave down to $27 million. It may seem like a lot of money, but lottery winners have a history of making poor financial decisions and losing it all.

One woman has built a career around offering pricey financial advice to the recently wealthy, trying to steer them away from bad financial moves. Susan Bradley, author of Sudden Money: Managing an Unexpected Windfall (John Wiley & Sons, 2000) and the creator of the Sudden Money Institute in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, has formed a Lottery Camp, a four-day-long " wealth orientation. " The cost? Around $16,000. So far, her flushest attendee was a $1.5 million–winning client. But she’s keeping her fingers crossed about the current crop of the suddenly rich.

Q: So what do you do in Lotto Camp?

A: Lottery Camp is for the family that won. It’s four days, you stay at a nice hotel. Let me tell you, Palm Beach is not hard to take. I’m a 20-year certified financial planner, [but] I’m not looking for a client, so they’re safe from that. Basically, we assemble a team: an attorney and a CPA and a therapist. We talk about their life’s goals and the kinds of things they want to do with the money. We set goals and priorities. We go over taxes and trusts. It’s four hours a day, and the rest of the time is their time to process.

Q: Sounds like a lot of work ...

A: Well, we also go on a hypothetical spending spree. They write down everything they want to buy. We work with them on numbers and show them the impact of their spending sprees so that they can buy intentionally.

Q: Is this really necessary?

A: I gotta tell ya: a lot of people have blown $20 million. It’s not that hard to do. They say one out of seven lose the money. Yes, it does happen. It certainly doesn’t happen to everyone, but it’s very common.

Q: How do you blow through $20 million?

A: You’d think with $20 million there are no spending limits, but in fact there are. Gifting people can be very expensive, and then it sets up expectations. The number-one thing people do is buy a home. But homes cost money to own, with taxes and insurance and furnishings. You may be surprised to find that it costs you a hundred thousand a year to operate that home.

Q: So ... are any of the new Powerball winners coming to camp this year?

A: [laughs] Not yet ...

Issue Date: August 30 - September 6, 2001