I was part of the Lottery Pool Too!
It seems that thanks to the Lotto Max $50 Million payouts being shared by a group at Bell Canada in Toronto, more and more folks are now claiming to be part of the winning group. Due to this, the Lottery Commission will hold onto the money a little longer to investigate every claim brought forward. 18 or so people are already sharing it, but now these new winners want a cut in the action.
Is this surprising? Not really. Money is the root of so many disagreements, altercations, fisticuffs and wars. These kinds of shenanigans are hardly surprising. It is amusing to see the alleged group members complaining that the lottery commission should give them the money. Still, the OLG must protect their interests, so they are holding onto the money (I bet this one takes a while to resolve if the group didn’t have ethical accounting).
This is another example of why it is important to have all of your financial paperwork in order because you never know what will happen.
If your Will is out of date, what happens? Nothing good would be my bet. If you are like me and have a Will that mentions 3 out of my four kids, that might not mean it is of much value. Who is your executor of your Will? Are they still alive? Do you still get along with them? Remember the thematic premise today, money makes people crazy, and if there are disagreements on who gets what, it can make for some ugly situations to arise.
Who are the beneficiaries of your life insurance policies and RRSPs (if you pass away)? It should be just fine, but what if you got divorced and forgot to take your ex-spouse off these policies or investments? Suddenly they receive the settlement, leaving a new family out in the cold?
Write it Down and Keep Track of it
This sad incident drives home the important point that in finances and life if it is not written down, you cannot assume it will happen the way you want. Ensure your finances are well documented and that this documentation is truly up to date, or you might end up with a nasty surprise.
Yes, I agree that money is the root of all evils. I remember when I was in high school, we have a debate about “Knowledge is powerful than money”, boys versus girls, and the girls are in the affirmative side. However we reason out, there are still proofs or news that money causes a lot of issues or problems between families or friends, or colleagues, just like what happened to the lotto winners.
The Lottery!? I mean, come on now, I know it would be GREAT to “win” the lottery, but what a total waste of your hard earned cash by purchasing lottery tickets! Nice blog, I plan to come back often.
Welcome!
It’s crazy how big groups of people at workplaces play the lotto together, especially without adequate documentation or information sharing.
Sometime back a woman bought quick pick lotto tickets for her group using the pooled money, and then bought some quick pick tickets of her own using her own personal money.
One of the tickets won. She claimed it was one she’d bought with her personal money, and she walked away with all the money — leaving a lot of former friends and coworkers who now hate her guts.
Who can say what money bought what quick pick tickets?
Workplace groups should decide on what numbers they’ll play. No quick picks. That way, everybody can know if one of those tickets is a winner or not.
Canadian income trusts
Thanks for the reminder on our 2 PF “resolutions”. Get a will done and create the finance information sheet.
Oh, and I want my part of the $50mil too.
No you weren’t!!! But I was! Money makes us all nuts.