What to do with 30 mil?
Well for starters, he better think about how his life is going to be adversly effected. Mo' money Mo' problems. If he is not used to living this life style it is very easy to squander away millions on BS and a growing ego supported by every letch in the world. He should form his crew, his closest friends to help him keep checked into reality. People that were there before he had wealth, people he can trust. These people will become his most valuable asset over time. If he is married, he better seek legal advise because any wrong action and old wifey becomes new problem. This is not for sure of coarse but he should always be thinking of exit strategies that diversify his risk from now on.
This is the funny thing about wealth. When you don't have it you can handle a lot of rick and when you have it you have to think about decreasing your risk to the least acceptable level. I say least acceptable because, living you are prone to risk at all times, but one must now become very causious to only handle risk situations you are ok with if all fails.
Now on the positive side
Your Friend. Your friend needs to be wise. What life does he want to live. What are his goals? He needs to think about this before he dives into any business venture. May people had some great suggestions on this thread topic, but he needs to think about what will drive him crazy and what will drive him to feel successful.
Bran suggested real estate and specifically apartments, as far as real estate goes I could not agree with him more! The rental industry has been beat down and is ready for an up swing, more importantly housing has increased in value at such a dramatic rate that it has put off many buyers, thus forcing them to rent untill the value of thier dollar increases enough to get what is acceptable living for them. I think that Bran would agree, that he is not talking about buying shacks here but units in areas with growing industry, population and educated workforce with moderate to high dispossible incomes.
Additionally, Reit's like to buy newly improved assets and with the liquidity that our friend has he can finance such situations without putting a major rinkle in his lifestyle.
Now last but not least...
Our friend must think about the team he needs to build to secure his wealth and make it grow. If he were to do such a move as written about above...he would want to form a strong management team. He would also want to form a solid team to handle Legal (personal and financial), Acountant ( Someone very trustworthy, that has a high reputation), establish a firm Banking relationship, and a Consulier or Cousel, someone that can help him form logical decissions for his most important matters. Generally, this should be someone that he feels he can trust and has a high respect for and he should pay this person for thier time.
I know that this is probably not the answer that you were looking for, but "every oportunity that looks good to ya, ain't always good for ya!"
First things first heshould take sometime to reflect on who he wants to be because at this point he has the gift of choice.
Thanks for the openended thread. I know that I had fun responding to it!
On another note, Bran I would like to talk with you about development and real estate please email me.