Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

You can get information about leaving lotto winnings to trusts and using wills and trusts to distribute your winnings by visiting www.calottery.com/Games/GameSpecifics/GameFAQ. The winnings are yours and you can do whatever you like with them. However, my understanding is that the winnings are paid to you personally. If that is the case, why would you want to create a trust, open a trust account with a financial institution, then divide that account into several accounts, just to revoke the trust? Simply having a trust does nothing to protect or hide your assets.

So you want to try to avoid paying taxes on your winnings? How do you do that when it is the State that is paying the lottery winnings, when the Trust is not the winner so would not be paid, and banks do not open accounts for a day or two?

You can do it but it would be pointless. It would be no different than if you received the winnings, divide them among several friends who agree to either give them back to you or to whomever you say, and then the next day you tell them to give the money back. What's the point? You still got the winnings, so you pay full taxes. Even if the trusts were legitimate asset protecting trusts, that protection would go away as soon as they are dissolved. It's just silly.