The winner of the biggest lottery jackpot ever awarded in Manitoba, and the third-largest ever to a single winner in Canada, should have little trouble figuring out what to do with her new fortune. She’s a certified financial planner.

Dawn Fraser, an account manager at Vantis Credit Union in Winnipeg, claimed her $27.2-million prize for having chosen the six lucky numbers in the Nov. 12 6/49 draw: 1, 14, 24, 30, 35 and 45. The exact amount on her oversized cheque was $27,227,325.

Fraser, 54, handed in her resignation within days, says Phil Deutshcher, director of branch operations at the Winnipeg-based credit union. He says employees have quit for a wide variety of reasons — leaving town, got a better offer some place else, changing professions — but never has someone cleaned out their desk because he or she had joined the multi-millionaire club.

“She was a respected employee whose leaving is going to be a loss to Vantis,” he says. “But we’re happy for her. I’d be happy for anybody who won $27 million.”

Deutshcher says he doesn’t see any conflict between the huge jackpot and the mantra of financial planners — diversify your portfolio, and hold for the long term.

He wouldn’t offer any details about Fraser’s book of business at Vantis, except to say that it would be divvied up among other advisors, the same as when any advisor leaves.

Cabbage rolls

Fraser was at home making cabbage rolls when her husband came into the kitchen after confirming the winning numbers and told her she didn’t have to work for a living any more.

“I tried to continue [cooking] after learning about the win. But I wasn’t making much progress, so I finally put the cabbage and rice away,” she says. “I was overwhelmed. There was total disbelief.”

Fraser says she had a sleepless night after realizing her life would never be the same. Then she visited the lottery office to collect her prize the next morning.

Fraser, whose only contact with the media was at a press conference to announce the winner, says she will heed the kind of advice she would give to clients and put her money to work for her in a conservative manner.

“I need some time to let this all sink in, and I haven’t given a lot of thought to future plans,” she says, admitting she might allow herself to buy a nice boat.

Keith Drybrough, an investment advisor at ScotiaMcLeod Inc. in Winnipeg, has had two clients who have won lotteries in the past few years. He says his advice is simple: take it slow and steady for the first year. In fact, the more you can fall off the map, the better.

“[The winners] were getting phone calls from friends they did not even know they had asking them to pay off their mortgages. They’d say, ‘I know you can afford it now, why don’t you step up and show what kind of friend you are.’ They were taken advantage of, for sure,” he says. Lie low, but try to have a little fun, he advises.

Drybrough says another broker in his office had a client who won $2.7 million and proceeded to spend the next year following the Rolling Stones band around on tour. When the tour ended, he bought a modest home and retired at the age of 38.

Drybrough says Fraser will probably receive many phone calls offering her investment advice. But once you’ve won a huge lottery, financial planning becomes a moot point.

“You don’t need to grow a portfolio that’s already there. You do have to decide how to invest it. Most people are going to want to go extremely conservative unless they’re complete maniacs. You might put $500,000 in a diversified portfolio and the rest in staggered guarantees,” he says.

Fraser’s win is almost 50% bigger than the previous $19.9-million record in Manitoba, which was won by 10 people in 2001 on a Super 7 ticket, says John Matheson, spokesman for Western Canada Lottery Corp. The biggest total win of which he is aware was the recent $54.2-million windfall shared by 17 oil and gas workers in Alberta in October.

“[Fraser’s] isn’t the largest single win in the country, but it certainly ranks up there with it,” he says.

@page_break@Matheson wasn’t surprised to hear Fraser had given her notice. “It’s fairly safe to say most of them do move on to something else that might interest them … unless they really love their job,” he says.

He has never heard of a financial planner winning such a large lottery before. In fact, he says, he didn’t even know her qualifications until she addressed the media.

“We knew she worked for a credit union and she was a manager. Then she told [the media] she felt fairly strong in this field because she was a certified financial planner,” he says. IE