One person woke up a $758 millionaire in Massachusetts Wednesday morning.
The winning Powerball ticket was sold at Pride Station & Store on Montgomery Street in Chicopee There were also two $1 million tickets sold in the state, one in Watertown and the other in Dorchester.
The lucky numbers from Wednesday night’s drawing are 6, 7, 16, 23 and 26, and the Powerball number is 4.
If you happen to be one of the lucky winners, you need to take some steps now, according to local lawyers.
1. Contact an accountant, because taxes are going to be a huge concern, says Tim McNamara, an attorney from Cape Cod.
2. Main some anonymity. "Friends and family will come out of the woodwork," said McNamara.
3. Before you even claim the price, McNamara says you can form a trust and designate a trustee.
So, when it comes to the lump sum and annual payments, McNamara says it depends on the person and how often you want to be meeting with financial advisors.
"If you're not working with professionals regularly, you'll want to probably take the winnings over a deferred period of time to make sure you don't go bankrupt. I think that there's actually a long line of individuals who've won sizable amounts in the lottery to the degree that most of haven’t even earned that much money in our lifetimes and yet they go bankrupt because of the new responsibility that they have," he said.
A Powerball winner doesn't have to claim their prize right away, and Woburn attorney Joshua Garick suspects it will be a few days before they do.
"People tend to rush in for a smaller prize but something like this, I imagine the winner, or winners, will take their time, make sure everything is in order before they head down to the headquarters to claim their prize," he said.
The Powerball winners can also remain anonymous, so we may never know who our local $700 millionaire is.