I WON $89 MILLION IN THE LOTTERY, BUT KEPT IT A SECRET. MY SON SAID, “MOM, WHEN ARE YOU FINALLY MOVING OUT OF OUR HOUSE?” I LEFT QUIETLY. THE NEXT MORNING I BOUGHT THEIR DREAM HOUSE. BUT NOT FOR THEM.

Pat Holloway called me Monday morning, as we had arranged.

“How did it go?”

“As expected,” I said.

“Any threats? Mention of legal action?”

“Renee mentioned that my decisions would have consequences for the family. No specific legal language.”

“They’d have very little to work with,” Pat said. “You are mentally competent, financially independent, represented by counsel, and have made no decisions that disadvantage anyone in any actionable way. The only avenue they might attempt is a competency challenge, and they would need significant medical evidence to pursue that, which they don’t have.”

I asked her to make absolutely certain the asset-protection structures were as solid as she’d described. She walked me through it again. The trust. The LLC. The firewall between personal and estate assets. Everything was properly documented and filed.

There was nothing to challenge.

“You should also know,” she said, “that if you want to ensure Daniel receives less than he might otherwise expect, or nothing at all, that is entirely your right as the grantor of the trust. The law does not require you to leave assets to adult children in Arizona.”

I thought about that for a moment.

“I’m not looking to punish him,” I said. “I’m looking to be fair.”

“Then tell me what fair looks like to you.”

What fair looked like to me took a full hour to articulate.

I would leave Daniel 20% of the estate, enough to be meaningful, not enough to be a windfall that had been extorted by bad behavior. Caroline, my daughter in Oregon, who had called every week for 2 years and sent flowers on my birthday and asked how I was actually doing rather than what I was planning financially, would receive 40%.

The remaining 40% would go to a charitable foundation. Harold had always believed in education funding, and I intended to honor that.

Renee was not mentioned in the document.

She had no legal claim in any case.

Pat drew it up. I signed it on a Wednesday in her Scottsdale office, in a conference room with good art on the walls, with 2 witnesses and a notary.

It was a relief.