At a conference years ago, I mentioned that my research subject was frustrated she couldn't use more of her inheritance for charitable purposes. She could only get a monthly allowance, determined by her cousin's son, because it was in trust till she died.

After the panel, a man helpfully explained to me that Jane (and I) just didn't understand trusts. The continued existence of the trust is always priority, he said, and it was right for the man in charge to be cautious. He was thinking of the future, not today's crisis.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about that interaction today.

And about the fact that while he told an old, childless woman she couldn't use her money to build a school, that cousin's son was skimming money off the trust for himself for years.

Also she figured it out and no one would believe her for years!

(Her brother finally did and then felt like a real jerk.)