Chapter 19 - Fairfield’s decision
Fairfield Fiduciary Trust spent nearly nine months reviewing.
They interviewed me.
Eli.
Victor through counsel.
Claire through counsel.
Bank officers.
Rachel.
Accountants.
They reviewed:
Police evidence.
Warehouse photographs.
Medical records.
LLC transactions.
The guardianship petition.
Victor’s distressed-business request.
Claire’s spreadsheets.
My own inappropriate board call.
Everything.
Their written decision was seventy-three pages.
I read twelve.
Rachel summarized the rest.
Victor’s ordinary discretionary distributions were suspended for three years, subject to annual review.
Emergency health needs could still be considered.
No business rescue distributions.
No trust guarantees.
No use of trust assets to satisfy personal property-development obligations.
Claire’s distributions were reduced and placed under enhanced review rather than fully terminated after the trustee determined her financial exploitation was smaller but her coercive conduct significant.
Why different?
Facts.
Not favoritism.
Eli’s position remained unchanged.
No monthly distributions because he still declined them.
I almost threw something.
“Eli.”
“No.”
“You have two children.”
“I have a job.”
“You also have a trust benefit.”
“I don’t want their money.”
“It is not their money.”
He looked at me.
I heard myself.
Exactly the lesson.
I said:
“Fine. But stop making refusal a religion.”
He laughed.
May you like
Later he agreed to let Fairfield pay college savings contributions directly for his children under permitted trust provisions.
Progress.
