Sorry, the limits on number of characters made my description a bit light on details. Dad was killed in a car accident and the insurance co of the driver of the vehicle who hit him paid out a settlement. The amount is really none of your business, but the principal plus returns between settlement and when I started to draw it was enough to cover tuition only for 4+ years. Money was placed in trust for each of us- all of us with mom as custodian, as we were minors. At that time, unless the minor changes/removes the custodian when they turn the age of majority, the custodian remains indefinetly. Mom cashes in fund and when I come home for christmas break to get the portion of the money for second semester tuition, says she used the money on a vacation for herself and my loser stepdad. Later I found out she invested it, made a killing and kept it all. She didn't want to put HER money on the line- in case the investment didn't work out. I even got to pay taxes on the capital gains!! I continued attending college until my SAVINGS was gone and LOANS I qualified for didn't cover expenses (mom was loaded from her part of the settlement and life insurance so I didn't qualify for much) I dropped out. DECADES later, I overhear her telling someone in our family that my youngest sister is the only one who used the money wisely from the settlement. Apparently, she has been telling everyone that I pissed my part of it away. Hope that clarifies. I guess having a college education would have given me the skills to change the second "she" to "mom".