Winning a large settlement and hiding money (lawyer, 100,000, work)

[tooldude]

Originally Posted by pathrunner

If the check is with your lawyer, the lawyer's office should have been contacted you about the disposition (location) of the check and asking you what you want to do. 18 years is a long time for the money to be held in a lawyer's trust account, but not unheard of.

If the check is with you, contact him first anyway. He is the one you should be seeking advice from and take it from there.

The best thing for you to do is contact the lawyer's office and ask if the check can be reissued, or whether it is actually in the trust account at his office.

Also, it sounds odd that an attorney would be pro bono in a case like this, but in any case wouldn't it be good for you to give the office something in light of the $1M? Work isn't free. The guy still has to pay his staff, if not himself.

Well I was receiving SSI at the time so I was indigent.

[tooldude]

Originally Posted by loves2read

If it was that big a deal wasn’t there some news story to capture the fact you were suing and received a settlement
You have to report that when you apply for SSI
Was it worth a felony to cheat the govt vs use your own money?

I was on local news in my city/region. I remember when the verdict was handed down by the judge, I exited the courtroom and these news cameras were hovering me. One reporter asked me what I was gonna do with the money, I distinctly said I might be rich, but I'm still very lonely.

[tooldude]

Does anyone know anything about winning large settlements and opening a special needs trust?

[Ehrmantraut]

Originally Posted by tooldude

Does anyone know anything about winning large settlements and opening a special needs trust?

Find a competent trust and/or tax attorney instead of internet strangers on here.

That's the best advice you're going to get.

[Sonic_Spork]

You seriously need to talk to an actual lawyer.

And you need to figure out if you can even get a check reissued before you go down this whole rabbit hole because it's all a waste of time if you can't. There are plenty of times where you get a check for something and it's on YOU to make sure you receive it and deposit or cash it in a timely manner...if you don't, then you're just out of luck. This many years out? You really might be out of luck on that.

So before you even get your hopes up about this in any way, find out if it's even a thing.

Then, if it is, then you need to seek legal counsel. I think that if your life circumstances have been all up in the air over the years from then to now, you might have some way of just filing some kind of amended tax return or something and getting it all straight with the government. I know that this will sound nuts, but the IRS can be more forgiving than you think, especially when an error was made with no particular malicious intent and you're ready to step up and make it right.

But this kind of situation is too big for anyone on the internet to be giving you advice about. If you are getting a million bucks, you NEED professionals to help you. An ABLE account or special needs trust might be a solution, but I believe that there are still limits even on those and I don't know what they are. But the thing is, even if you get the million bucks and you live on it a while and your medical costs or whatever eat up the money and at some point it's gone...you can get BACK on SSI if you need to. I believe they have an expedited process for those who were qualified but then became disqualified due to income of some sort, but then requalify later. So it's not as though claiming the money means permanently giving up your lifeline even if it runs out one day.

But that brings me to another thing. You can't look at a million bucks as though it is "unlimited make my dreams come true" money. It's not. It will go away FAST. If you use it to buy a house or car, you must be aware of the ongoing need to pay taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. Those things are not a one-and-done. You'll still need money to support yourself in the future.

So first find out if they can even reissue the check. Secondly, if they can, find a lawyer. You may also need a CPA, but start with a lawyer. It's good that you are aware of ABLE accounts and Special Needs Trusts but please stop asking randoms on the internet to advise you. (I'm an accounting nerd, with some knowledge of these financial account types, and even I will not advise you as to any specifics of this beyond what I've just said here.)

[L00k4ward]

Originally Posted by tooldude

How am I hiding my settlement money from the SSI since I never cashed the check?

The police department owes me money! A few people have told me that pain and suffering settlements are non taxable. So maybe I can get the whole $1 million dollars.

If all above is true and you ARE NOT a Nigerian Prince, businessman, etc. then listen up.

When you cash the check: the SSA could make you pay it all back. It is all on their website.

So you already lost twice and on your way to maybe lose for the third time in addition.

- the profit from investing the money over the years by not cashing the check - it could have double your money
- you have to pay back SSI you received while /if the money were available to you at the time or since

(It doesn’t matter if you “assign” the check to someone - it would create a money trail - leading back to you - and additional taxes maybe due - depending who you assign the check to and how; the above 2 points still stand.)

- besides that it won’t be financially beneficial to you to “assign” the money to someone - you are risking much more.

People change their loyalty and allegiance once the cash hit their bank accounts: you are still on the hook for all the above and may go to prison even leaving the person to enjoy your money; you may even meet an unfortunate deadly “accident “

Trust me, it is easy to get back at police, but you can’t screw around with the Feds: get your check if true, cash it, pay back the money you used to the government- voluntarily - otherwise it would cost you more in interests and penalties and lawyers fees - you won’t qualify for free lawyer in court anymore.

Get good CPA and a lawyer to minimize the financial losses as well as a financial advisor and depending on your age more or less conservative investments.

Enjoy your money headaches free.

Welcome to the real world where “free money” to have is sometimes very expensive.
If you really really like to get free money from the government - you probably could spend it all very fast: fast cars, women/guys, world cruises - but only AFTER you paid all your debts to the government.

Then you could get back on gravy train.

Not sure about your living quarters, but if you don’t have a nice place - that where I would spend the money - nothing ostentatious- but in a safe place - but make sure you have enough left for property taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc if you go back on government assistance.
1 million isn’t too much money - it will disappear fast.

You will be able to keep the house if you go back on SSI
Why you are not on disability? Do you qualify? Do you have children? Education? Any ties to other countries with lower costs of living?

If you provide more info - we may have more ideas for you

You are thinking like a poor person whose family was always destitute and on public assistance for generations
You could break the cycle and build more successful life for everyone involved.

Your SSI - isn’t coming from the faceless government, but from your American neighbors, the janitor in school your children go, the driver of the bus you take, the mailman who brings your mail, that teller in the bank where you get your money,etc - people who are paying numerous types of taxes.

It is just fair if you pay them back when the life smiled at you and handed you a million dollars

[tooldude]

Thanks for all your tips and advices. I can probably get free law and financial advice from people in my association but I need to get in touch with them because I'm in a psych ward right now. There's wifi here.

[tooldude]

Originally Posted by L00k4ward

If all above is true and you ARE NOT a Nigerian Prince, businessman, etc. then listen up.

When you cash the check: the SSI could make you pay it all back. It is all on their website.

So you already lost twice and on your way to maybe lose for the third time in addition.

- the profit from investing the money over the years by not cashing the check
- you have to pay back SSI you received while /if the money were available to you at the time or since

(It doesn’t matter if you “assign” the check to someone - it would create a paper trail - leading back to you - and additional taxes maybe due - depending who you assign the check to and how; the above 2 points still stand.)

- besides that it won’t be financially beneficial to you to “assign” the money to someone - you are risking much more.

People change their loyalty and allegiance once the cash hit their bank accounts: you are still on the hook for all the above and may go to prison even leaving the person to enjoy your money; you may even meet an unfortunate deadly “accident “

Trust me, it is easy to get back at police, but you can’t screw around with the Feds: get your check if true, cash it, pay back the money you used to the government- voluntarily - otherwise it would cost you more in interests and penalties and lawyers fees - you won’t qualify for free lawyer in court anymore.

Get good financial advisor and depending on your age more or less conservative investments.

Enjoy your money headaches free.

Welcome to the real world where “free money” to have is sometimes very expensive.
If you really really like to get free money from the government - you probably could spend it all very fast: fast cars, women/guys, world cruises.

Then you could get back on gravy train.

Not sure about your living quarters, but if you don’t have a nice place - that where I would spend the money - nothing ostentatious- but in a safe place - but make sure you have enough left for property taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc if you go back on government assistance.
1 million isn’t too much money - it will disappear fast.
You will be able to keep the house if you go back on SSI.
Why are you not on disability? Do you qualify? Do you have children? Education?

If you provide more info - we may have more ideas for you

You are thinking like a poor person whose family was always destitute and on generational assistance.
You could break the cycle and build more successful life for everyone involved

I am on SSI since a yr old due to chronic anemia and still receive it.

[Athair]

Rofl

[ocnjgirl]

Originally Posted by Lowexpectations

This isn’t accurate. The OP should seek professional help as well as contact whom ever issued the original check and have the funds reissued if they can be. Given the amount of time that has passed the funds should have been escheated to the state and the OP most likely would need to go to the state’s abandoned property division

Why isn't it accurate? Even if the settlement isn't taxable for OP, it's not a settlement made out to the person he gives it to. It's simply a gift from OP to that person in that case. If someone gives you $100,000, you have to pay tax on it. The person can't say "I'm just hiding it for a friend so disability doesn't find out about it " (aka laundering his money).