Won the lottery? What to do if you take home the Lotto 6/49 jackpot

Lotto 6/49 is set to see the largest jackpot in its history likely be awarded this week with at least one Canadian expected to win the "Gold Ball" draw.

With $68 million up for grabs on Wednesday night in the Lotto 6/49 Gold Ball draw, there will be a lot of Canadians waiting to check their numbers once the lucky draw is made.

But once that gold ball has been dropped —and according to lottery officials it is guaranteed someone will win the $68 million — what should the lucky winner or winners do?

Well, according to Stephan Desbiens of Exponent Investment Management, the very first thing to do is stop, think and breathe given you have a big influx of cash coming in.

“Just to try to really understand the moment that you’re in and possibly how things could really impact the rest of your life,” he said in an interview with Global News on Wednesday.

Then, sign your ticket and store it somewhere safe because there will be some additional things you’re going to want to do first before cashing the winning slip of paper.

Given you’re about to come into an influx of money, Frank Hounjet with Virtus Group said you should contact your attorney, accountant and financial planner so you can plan out what you’ll do with the new funding, while also working to prevent legal issues that could arise.

In doing so, you can also start to plan for the resulting publicity and potential solicitations you could get from not just friends, charities and scammers, but even family members.

“So essentially trying to figure out how you want to deal those winnings, how you want to plan out your needs for retirement, what you want to donate and give way to family, friends,” he said.