"The assets are taking a beating," said Goudy, 54. "If I had time, I'm sure I could become more knowledgeable. But I don't."

Being a trustee for a family member's money can be a tough job, agreed Geraldine Champion, a San Luis Obispo attorney who specializes in elder law and estate planning. The trustee is often second-guessed and blamed when problems happen. Taking on the job without having an investment background or professional help can be even more difficult and perhaps a recipe for disaster.

California recently raised its standards for trustees, holding them to higher standards and raising their liability if things go wrong, Champion explained.

"The fact is that the funds of the trust you're responsible for are being depleted fairly rapidly, and this is money that has no replacement source," Champion said. "Meanwhile, you also bear a heavy legal and fiduciary responsibility as the sole trustee."

Goudy's father made Goudy sole trustee to protect his wife from lawsuits. As an anti-abortion activist in Santa Cruz, Edith Manchester had been threatened with suits before her husband died.

But structuring the trust that way puts a larger burden on Goudy while making it difficult to do some of the financial planning that might be needed, Champion said.

Goudy believes that her father made her, rather than one of her siblings, trustee because of her position as first-born. "I'm independent and bossy and I've got a head" for learning, she explained.

An administrative assistant at Pasadena City College, Goudy works nights teaching English as a second language and hopes to move to a full-time teaching position later this year.

That doesn't leave her much time to study finance, and she describes herself as "an advanced beginner" when it comes to money matters.

Finding someone to give her professional advice about the trust proved difficult. The few financial planners who charge hourly fees typically want to take over managing the trust for an annual fee. Commission-based salespeople, on the other hand, recommended expensive annuities or other investments with up-front sales charges.

"It seems there is no low-cost way to get sound advice up front and then not have to keep paying annual fees that eat away at returns, such as in an annuity," Goudy wrote in her application for a Money Make-Over. "For those of us who want to 'buy and hold,' we need assistance at the beginning but not on an ongoing basis."

Grieving for her father, who died in 1998, has also made it difficult for Goudy to make decisions. She hasn't wanted to touch the trust's investments, which her conservative father placed almost entirely in utility stocks and bonds and in real estate investment trusts.

"It's old-fashioned investing," said Judith Martindale, a certified financial planner who reviewed the trust's investments. Previous generations prized utilities and real estate trusts for their supposed stability, but both sectors have become riskier in recent years.

Still, Goudy counts her blessings. Her siblings have been supportive--"mostly I think they're relieved that they don't have to do this." And her mother, at 80, is in excellent health.

Manchester lives independently and frugally in a paid-for mobile home; her only major expense, besides food, is the $340 a month she pays to rent her mobile home space, a sum that includes utilities. Manchester gets $374 a month in Social Security benefits, and Goudy transfers $500 to $600 a month from the trust to Manchester's bank account to pay bills.

The trust has been used for some larger expenses as well. At her children's urging, Manchester has taken trips to Hawaii, Massachusetts and Italy to visit siblings. The siblings also agreed to use some of the trust money to redecorate Manchester's mobile home.

"Dad didn't think that was important, but we did," Goudy said.

Those expenditures, plus the investments' decline in value, have reduced the trust by nearly 25% in the past year--far too rapidly for Goudy's taste.