I will state at the outset that I am ignorant of most of the issues involved.
However, I think that they have the money to complete their two big projects as they are selling off old stuff in more expensive neighborhoods. The rest of it though. . .
One thing I read somewhere (and that soon disappeared) was in reference to a kind of investing that is basically gambling with a bigger bite than normal investing as if you lost, you could lose more than you actually invest. . . not sure if that is the hedge funds, or what. However, as there are definitely incidents of financial malfeasance both in and out of the organization, I could see that the organization could be very screwed by one person with too much authority who made a bad decision in investments that could seriously screw things up. Which may well have cut into the hundreds of millions in reserve that we have assumed for some time. Wishfully thinking? Maybe! Unheard of? Unfortunately, no.
I also think that those lawsuits/claims have been nipped in the bud, expensively, before they become lawsuits. JWs now like to brag about how few lawsuits there are now. . . well, usually claims are made before lawsuits are filed. They could be paying hundreds of millions that never got to the point of becoming "lawsuits". We don't know, but while the RC church paid out a LOT in lawsuits, I imagine that there were many there that they never let get to that point because it was a losing battle. They just paid them to shut them up, like they have done with so many claims in the WTBTS already. Not letting them go to trial is one way. Not letting them get to a lawsuit is even better.