I wonder if the situation in Post #36 was an “overly-optimistic dad” who over-promised and wasn’t realistic about what HE could actually pay for, and then when it came time to actually pay the bills, he quietly withdrew the money from that fund (which he obviously had some easy access to).
Well, it also could have been money left in a trust to pay for college, so the parents used it to pay for college. The trust may not have been designed as an education trust, but the grandparents intended it for that.
^^^
that may be so, but that should have been made clear to the D. She wanted the cheaper school, but dad insisted on the pricier school and it sounds like he implied that he would be paying. He didn’t convey that the girl’s trust fund would be paying. It would seem like the honest thing to do would have been something like this:
girl: Dad, I would rather go to UT, it’s so much cheaper.
Dad: You got into Rice, and don’t worry about cost because your grandparents set up a trust for you and their intent was for you to use the trust money for college.
At least this way there could have been a conversation with options, such as, "well dad, if I go to cheaper UT, what happens to the leftover money? can I use it to buy a home? "