We were almost the recipients of an irrevocable trust the year before DS started college. We contacted the colleges, and were told we would have had to declare our full value of this trust (which was a family cottage…which we could not sell…or gain any cash from) as an asset on the financial aid forms. This property was worth a lot of money and our share would have been more than twice what our incomes were at the time.
We declined to be part of the trust and this was one reason.
We didn’t qualify for need based financial aid anyway…but since this trust would have been passed on to our kids, and their kids, we didn’t want to lock anyone into a financial situation in the future.
I think you should contact the financial aid office at one of your colleges and ask about this situation. The offices we dealt with were very happy to help us.
Your situation is a little different than ours…so you will need to explain.