LW1 - this is a big issue to me.  Why do people think that other people's assets are in any way whatsoever your business?  I agree that it would make sense that as a grandparent they would want to keep those resources in the family.  I myself believe that family wealth is built on smart usage of family resources and keeping money in the family as much as possible.  Example, I hold my daugthers mortgage and in our family, these types of situations work out because we set the expectations up front and then put it to our lawyer.  The result for us is that they pay us interest, not the bank, and we use the interest to invest for their longer term goals while they continue to build wealth.  But there's never the expectation that my assets are hers or hers are mine.  We do what we do by choice.