“Neither Daniel nor Renee has any administrative authority or signing rights over the principal or the investment earnings.”

“Could Daniel use those accounts as collateral for loans to cover his own debts?” I asked.

“He could not,” Mr.

Vance said.

“The trust terms flatly forbid any family pledge, assignment, or parental leverage until each child turns twenty-five.”

He gave me the final signature pages, laying his fountain pen across the top margin.

“Your total cash outlay today for the house, the closing costs, the two children’s trusts, and my firm’s retainer comes to four million eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars.”

I signed my name flat across the bottom of both trust documents.