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You sold me. Where do I sign up

If one is smart, they wouldn't take the lump sum anyway. Taking 29 annual payments still works out to about 44 million a year, figure about 20 million after taxes. That is like winning the lotto every year. You also get a few extra chances to fix any major financial f**k ups. Of course that assumes there is a single jackpot winner, which is unlikely.

It is my understanding that the annuity payment is non-transferable upon the death of the winner, if you get hit by a car and killed in the first year, no more money.

True, but I have no experience dealing with large sums of money. The odds of me f**king up, and needing a second chance, are greater than the odds of me dying. And with a jackpot THIS big, even one years payment should be plenty for my family.

That is why you find someone to assist in that. My thought on the matter FWIW, is take the lump sum. Find a conservative investment that yields about 5% yearly. lets call the lump sum 600 mil (see my math in a comment below). 5% is 30 mil/year (21 after tax, roughly) in perpetuity, and you can leave it to family or charity upon your death (which will happen eventually). Like I said its just my opinion, there's pros/cons to each method. Good luck.

You might want to ask your city and state why?

Why what?

Why your only getting $300 million some instead of $1.3 or 4 billion dollars i did.

First of all, I haven't won it yet (and in reality am unlikely to). The full 1.3 billion is only if you take annual payments, the "cash value"is usually, roughy, a little over half that. (In theory the cash value would expand to the full amount over the 29 year payment period if invested. After that, you can expect about half of what you get to be taken up in taxes. 300 million sounds a little low, but that's what the meme said, so that's what I responded to. I haven't researched the exact numbers because the likelihood of it actually mattering to be is rather low.

Just ran the numbers. Jackpot is now estimated at 1.4 billion. That works out to 868 million in a lump sum payment. chop 30% off for federal taxes (my state has no state income tax) and it leaves you with 607.6 million. worth the 2$ ticket I'd say.

No i don't say, i can only say we do our own math weather were right or wrong.