The way you have chosen to interpret this is certainly telling. Might she be saying that even if she knew what the popular path was, she doesn't think it's the answer? That we need to find a"different path"? Seems reasonable to me.

Paul, did you read her statement? It describes a distressing, messy family situation resolved in the best interests of a disabled child. The financial advice she says she was given may have been wrong, but it's surely credible that that was what she was told. In what sense was this an open goal?