When lottery winnings are paid out over 10 to 20 years, it sometimes makes it very difficult for the winner to put his/her money to good use in a timely fashion. Many lottery winners, therefore, prefer to convert their annual payments into a large lump sum payment and take complete control over their lottery winnings.

However, it must be noted that most lottery winnings are non-assignable and you would, therefore, almost always need a court approval before you can possibly "sell" or "transfer" your rights to periodic payments guaranteed by your lottery prizes.

It is not impossible, however, to accomplish that considering there are many discount brokers or factoring companies that offer such services. Of course, one has to follow the legal processes and go through the entire judicial maze, but it is not difficult to secure the necessary court orders authorizing reassignment of your lottery winnings -especially if you were to retain services of experienced traders or factoring companies that specialize in discounting of lottery prizes.

Most companies and brokers that offer discounting or brokering of lottery prizes do all the paper work and legal processes at no upfront cost to you. They would usually have an attorney that would require you to enter into an agreement with them before they would begin the (often lengthy) process of seeking a judicial approval. They would petition the court for the necessary judicial approvals on your behalf, and upon completion of that process, would make a lump sum payment to you. In doing so, you would be in fact authorizing the lottery commission to redirect all future checks to the broker.

Usually, there is no initial or upfront cost to you. All you would need to do to get the ball rolling would be provide your broker with various documents, such as the following:

• Your Lottery Award Letter from the State Lottery Commission
  
• Proof of Payment (a copy of a recent lottery check usually suffices)
  
• Identification documents to prove you are the actual lottery winner
  
• Copies of any previous assignments, and if applicable,
  
• A copy of a Will or Probate Papers, Divorce Decree, Marriage License, etc.

Your broker and/or his attorney will require you to enter into a binding agreement first, and only then walk you through the entire legal process.

It would be in your best interest to have your attorney handle all those contractual details, and to make sure that you are indeed getting the most competitive discounting rate for your lottery annuity payments.