If the person who witnessed a national lottery “Syndicate Agreement dies, do you have to make a new agreement?

A Syndicate agreement that was valid when made remains valid, even if the person making the contract later becomes incompetent, or the witnesses should die. However, after the person’s death, the heirs who are seeking to have the contract admitted to probate have to produce some proof that the contract was properly signed and that’s where the witnesses come in. If the witnesses are unavailable, it can lead to delays and added expense for the heirs and the executor.

To anticipate the potential problems, “self-proving affidavits” are often used. They are statements signed by each of the witnesses, generally right after the Syndicate agreement is executed and witnessed, that the person making the contract did, in fact, sign it, appeared to be of sound mind, and was signing the contract freely. Your witnesses won’t have to testify as to your contract’s validity when you die, for the affidavit speaks to the syndicate agreements validity and serves as extra insurance that they witnessed your signature. This “Self-Proving” Affidavit also avoids problems that may arise if the witnesses cannot be located.

In the absence of both witnesses and self-proving affidavits, particularly if someone may want to contest the contract, it may be necessary to demonstrate to the judge that the signatures of the person who made the contract, and those of the witnesses, are genuine. That can increase legal expenses, require handwriting experts, and added to a family’s grief after a death.

Among the options open for someone whose witnesses have died: (1) have the person draft a new contract—even one with the exact same provisions – with new witnesses and a self-proving affidavit, or (2) have him prepare a minor amendment or Codicil to his existing contract that states that the existing syndicate agreement is still valid is still valid.

What do I do if I do not believe the lottery is being put on or our winnings not disclosed?

I refer to the fact that I pay someone to put it on but have not been passed the numbers and no guarantee that ticket bought or winnings passed on but don’t want to cancel in case of any winnings.

This can be common problem between many syndicate members and managers, members are not sure if managers have bought the lottery tickets for the draw and managers have to go and make copies of the tickets they have bought to prove to members that the tickets a have been bought. Its almost as though the syndicate manager needs to develop a system and send scanned copies of the tickets as soon as they are bought for the syndicate to all members.

Or your other option is to become the syndicate manager and buy the tickets your self so you personally know the tickets are bought. While you’re on the subject you could even go crazy and ask the managers to carry a phone with a camera to video film the purchasing of the tickets. I’d go with former and insist on a scanned copy of the lottery tickets on email. 

My nightmare for collecting money from colleagues and really having to chase payments for some previous draws!!!

This can be awkward sometimes, especially when you are trying to catch your boss who owes money to the Lottery Syndicate but is in meetings all day. So how do you get the money out of such a person without any issues?

Well, you could go with the bullish approach and tell him directly that he owes the Syndicate money and needs to pay up if he expects to continue. Which is fair enough, then again you don’t want to piss him off too much and not the best way to build a good relationship with him. Start off by asking him for some advice on work related stuff and then let him know about his outstanding with the syndicate. That should work with all the people you need to get money out off, but it can still be a little annoying, as you would think it would be easy and people should pay you what they owe. Though my belief is if you want people to do what you want, give them something that is important to them. Talk to them about whats important to them. I think its fact of the effort required for payment collection that gets under my skin, but you do have to patient with them or you end up loosing syndicate members all together.

This exercise of collecting money from members has a positive. As a syndicate manager chasing and talking to members you get to know other people in the office, especially higher up the food chain. Helping in company promotions. In fact the way you run your syndicate will reflect senior management recognizing your work and perhaps help in appraisals.

National Lottery Syndicates....are they tax free?

Lottery syndicates are tax free so long as the members have written agreement in place.

If there is no [written] agreement and the winner of a prize transfers part of it to others, these gifts may attract Inheritance Tax. If the members of the group can prove that the distribution of the prize was made in accordance with a group agreement entered into before the win, no liability to Inheritance Tax will arise [effectively this means you need a written agreement]. It is important to note that Inland Revenue law and practice may change, the comments on Inheritance Tax are based on our understanding of Inland Revenue practice as of November 1994 [sadly, there's nothing else about Inheritance Tax e.g. Is there a personal allowance ? What's the tax rate (40%) ? etc.].

By having an agreement all recorded members will avoid inheritance tax on any large winnings. The absence of an agreement, however, may result in such tax being liable to all those in the syndicate (aside from the person that will take responsibility for the winning ticket).

Most importantly, make sure that you create a new agreement for every change in the syndicate i.e. new members, opting out members, changed policies, changes to what people pay, etc.

I have to admit a written agreement like this is not always great. Lets say you have certain members of your syndicate that do not play every week and decide play on alternative weeks or when the jackpots are big. It’s almost as though agreement needs to be flexible to cater for members wanting to leave or join the syndicate whenever. I don’t know any  Syndicate manager keen on drawing up agreements every week for such members, adding to the already pain staking work load with data entry. This agreement though is clearly important. There needs to be agreement to just say that if a player has put the money in for that week then he is in, and deserves a tax free cut of the winnings. But if some players are away on holiday and forget to put enough money in the syndicate then they are out? Collection of money is another problem.

The syndicate agreement is it rock solid?

• The date the agreement was drawn up.
• The names of the group members.
• The appointed manager's name.
• How the numbers will be selected for each draw [i.e. random or constant and whether each member can pick their own numbers].
• How much each member will pay per draw and the corresponding percentage share of any prize.
• What happens if a member fails to pay their contribution at any time [i.e. either they get nothing for that draw if there's a win or they get a percentage of what they would normally get and the rest is shared appropriately amongst the other members].
• If the group has a big win, how the members will decide whether or not they want publicity.

GROUP PLAYING AGREEMENT
The Name Of The Group: _______________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Member's         Weekly           % Of        Date     Signature
Name        Contribution (£)    Prizes

[One line per member]

Witness' Signature: ________________    Name: ________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________________
Occupation: ________________________    Date: ___________________

• The agreement must be signed and dated by each group member and should be witnessed by a solicitor, doctor or someone of similar standing and or an organization.
• If the group changes, a new agreement should be drawn up [a right pain this one - even if the draw payments change, you need a new agreement !].
• Copies should be given to each member and the original kept in a safe place [perhaps with the independent witness ?], as the Inland Revenue may require to see it as evidence of the group agreement.

Lottery Syndicate Spreadsheets with weird formats that wind me up!

Last week I was going about my business uploading information on our syndicates spreadsheet. Apparently the way I enter dates on Google spreadsheet were in the wrong format. I was entering the day/month/year, in numerical entries. Apparently this needs to be entered inversely for the program to read the correct day.

So I had look through all my tickets bought to make sure we had the correct dates for the draw played on that day. This had be done as the one anal member of my lottery syndicate wanted this done properly, as he wanted to be able to see the history of our plays properly even though we hadn’t won anything! To be fair he did help me in the end, and changed all dates, so thank you! I would just like to add, it was still a waste of time. Who cares about the history of the lottery tickets we play, we didn’t win! So they are irrelevant... right?

How would you work out the odds on winning the lottery in a syndicate of 40 people each buying 1combination each?

3 numbers £10 per winner 55.656 to 1
4 numbers 22% of remaining fund 1,031.4 to 1
5 numbers 10% of remaining fund 55,490 to 1
5 numbers and bonus ball 16% of remaining fund 2,330,635 to 1
6 numbers 52% of remaining fund 13,983,815 to 1
The overall odds of winning any prize is 52.655 to 1

Divide any of those numbers by 40 if you are going to buy 40 tickets.

So for an average syndicate of say 5 people, these are the following odds:
3 numbers £10 per winner 11.1312 to 1
4 numbers 22% of remaining fund 206.28 to 1
5 numbers 10% of remaining fund 11098 to 1
5 numbers and bonus ball 16% of remaining fund 466,127 to 1
6 numbers 52% of remaining fund 2,796,763 to 1
The overall odds of winning any prize is 10.531 to 1

Lottery syndicates are really the way forward. What's the point in playing on your own?... Most people reading this are probably thinking why should I play with a group when I want all the winnings to myself. It is a fact that a syndicate will increase your chances and to win any prize, your proof is in the new higher odds for a win created. Yes you will win less because the money prize gets split, but it also about putting you in a winning frame of mind, lets face it would all feel more achieved if we were winning something as apposed to nothing. Lottery Syndicates put you in the winning spirit.