Linda Perillo, 58, inherited from Perillo Tours but says trustees control the money leaving her in ‘financial hardship hell’
A woman who enjoyed an opulent upbringing now finds herself battling to survive financially and provide for her family – despite receiving a substantial inheritance from her father’s estate.
Linda Perillo was raised with every luxury imaginable and travelled so extensively during childhood that she believed frequent holidays were simply how everyone lived.
Her father Mario operated the tour company Perillo Tours, and Linda was immersed in affluence, attending private schools and wanting for nothing. She characterises her early years as “a combination of twenty four carat gold and Italian dark chocolate covered in MandM’s”.
However, she now describes being trapped in “financial hardship hell” whilst enduring the humiliation of being unable to properly nourish or clothe her eight children.
“We stayed in the best suites, had the best pizza and when my dad was doing business, my mom and I were out and about, usually shopping,” explains Linda, from New Jersey. Regardless of the wealth, Linda was instilled with a solid work ethic from an early age, reports the Mirror.
At 14, she began working, initially in retail, then at holiday camps and eventually at the local radio station.
“I had what I needed – good schools, a car – but my social life was not that of a debutante,” the 58 year old reflects. “My friends and I were not party girls. We liked hanging with my parents and going out for dinner.
“Did I love clothes? Yes, I was a fashionista from early on.”
However, everything shifted when her father passed away in 2003.
Having previously lost her mother to cancer, she inherited the Perillo wealth, though trustees maintained control over the funds.
“There was a fortune I could not touch or even get a screenshot of unless someone else told me I could. I was told how much of it I could see or use and on what.”
She’d never learnt to budget and confesses she was careless with finances. Additionally, she had eight children to support.
“I gave money away to make others happy all the time,” she explains. She lavished funds on tuition, holidays and enriching experiences for her offspring.
“She poured money into lessons, travel and experiences for her children. Like my mother groomed me, my kids needed to stand out and show privilege.”
She constructed an enormous residence on property her father had gifted her. “He was so proud and excited to give me a McMansion across the street from where I grew up,” she recalls.
Yet her ideal dwelling turned into a catastrophe and the property became a financial drain. Contractors exploited her situation and she became overwhelmed by massive renovation costs.
“I received twenty thousand a year for repairs on a house that needed twenty thousand a month to keep it alive.”
Subsequently, when her second marriage collapsed in October 2020 following nineteen years, she discovered herself in debt. She was shattered and petrified, grappling with enormous tax demands she hadn’t anticipated whilst battling to maintain payments to tradespeople who’d worked on the property, with one particularly frightening incident occurring when a young gardener and his father turned up at her doorstep demanding payment.
“I wanted to vomit. I was paralysed with fear,” she recalls. Her card then began getting declined.
“I have eight kids, six of whom are still dependent, and I struggle daily with the embarrassment, the anxiety, and heartbreak of not being able to send my kids to school with proper clothes, lunch or supplies,” she explains.
“It’s the withholding that causes the anxiety. Without therapy, I would have ended my life because I thought I was failing my kids.”
However, Linda persevered because she couldn’t bear the thought of her children witnessing her breakdown. She got dressed each morning despite being unable to afford new clothing.
There were occasions when she was down to her final fifty dollars yet still required a three hundred dollar textbook for education, forcing her to pawn jewellery to stay afloat.
“By 52, I was broke,” she admits. Not merely financially stretched but emotionally and physically drained.
At her darkest point, she penned a suicide note, yet recognised she couldn’t abandon her children. “Financial hardship is hell, especially when you are providing for a family,” she states.
Ironically, she possesses wealth but is unable to utilise it due to its control by trustees. “I am a prisoner of my own money, controlled by institutions and strangers. It’s considered a ‘discretionary trust’. In simple terms, if the trustees disapprove or cannot comprehend your ‘ask’, without any justification provided, you’re denied access to your money.
“Even the monthly distribution can be reduced according to the agreement – not the will my father established – the agreement with the trustees, should I secure employment. I receive a monthly distribution (about several thousand) which has remained unchanged for nearly five years, barely sufficient to support my family despite numerous attempts to negotiate a change.
“We reside in a decent house, owned by the trust, but we’re unable to repair or decorate it. It’s deteriorating, and I’ve been without a dishwasher since moving in three years ago.
“I’m ineligible for welfare or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because on paper, it appears that I have substantial wealth. And I’m prohibited from taking up part-time work, or the trust can terminate my distribution.”
Once accustomed to luxury attire and frequent beauty and hair treatments, Linda now frequents Shein. “I discovered excellent drugstore makeup as an alternative to Sephora. I maintained my wellbeing with minor adjustments.”
Linda has discovered joy, tying the knot with contractor Patrick, who is her junior, in January 2024 and has penned a book chronicling her journey.
“I am now a published author and stay-at-home mom. I am not where I wanted to be financially at this point. But I keep going through hope and prayer. I will keep fighting and working”, she adds.
Linda is the author of Your Payment Method Has Been Declined, which is now available to purchase on Amazon.
