“Call me,” David Spillane says with a laugh. The Quincy-based attorney should know. He’s collected 80 lottery checks over the past several years. He specializes in creating trusts for lottery winners to protect their identities.
State law requires large lottery winners to identify themselves. That includes a photo op holding the giant check with the dollar amount printed in bold, black letters. This makes them a ripe target for scammers, money-grubbing “friends,” and people begging for handouts.
But winners can avoid this by creating a trust to collect the money for them and naming an attorney as a representative.
Spillane, a partner at SKB Attorneys, is the most prolific attorney at this in the state, according to his website. And a scan of winners on the Massachusetts State Lottery website bears that out.
There were more than 35 trusts who collected lottery prizes in 2023. Spillane represented 18 of them and has done as many as five in a day. He worked with his 80th client this week, he said.