Mary Kay Ash is held up as a brilliant businesswoman who helped other women get ahead. The reality is that she was a predator who preyed on innocent women who wanted an opportunity and believed the public persona. Behind closed doors, Mary Kay was a dishonest charlatan who was married seven times and got rich at the expense of everyday women who put money into a pyramid scheme.

The incredible wealth of Mary Kay Ash now rests with her children and their heirs. The Rogers family collectively has billions of dollars, and now…. they’re fighting over it.

On November 1, 2024, Ryan Rogers, the current CEO of Mary Kay Inc. filed suit against Richard Rogers, his father. Included in the lawsuit are the many beneficiaries of the “Mary Kay-Richard R. Rogers 1975 Trust” (i.e. Mary Kay’s grandchildren and great grandchildren). Beneficiaries of the trust include:

• Richard Rogers (Mary Kay Ash’s son who co-founded Mary Kay Cosmetics with her)
• The children of Richard: Ryan Rogers, Terri Rogers, Rick Rogers (Richard Rogers II)
• The grandchildren of Richard: Aaron Ivie, Geoffrey (Michael) Ivie, Brendan Ivie, Natalie Ivie, Richard (Flip) Rogers III, Renee Rogers, Mariah Bay (aka Mariah Rogers), Marissa Rogers, E.R. (a minor)
• The great-grandchildren of Richard: E.I. (a minor)

At the time the trust was established, Mary Kay set up 16 family trusts for her heirs. In 2021, Mary Kay Holding Company (MKHC), the entity that owns the cosmetics company, Mary Kay Inc., formed two subsidiaries, Golden Rule Management LLC and Golden Rule Investments LP, to manage the family trusts.

Let’s back up a little before getting into the lawsuit…

Some Mary Kay History

Mary Kay named Richard Rogers the CEO of Mary Kay Inc. in 1987. He didn’t necessarily do a great job, but the company grew anyway. From one news story:

In 2006, Ryan Holl became the CEO of Mary Kay Inc. In 2013, Mary Kay Cosmetics was estimated to be worth $2.6 billion. In 2022, Holl retired and Ryan Rogers, son of Richard Rogers, became the CEO.

“As a young man, my grandmother predicted I would someday lead her company and worked to prepare me by sharing many of her lessons in leadership,” said Rogers, whose father, Richard Rogers, co-founded the company in 1963 with his grandmother. “As usual, Mary Kay was right. I am honored but also energized to have the opportunity to lead my grandmother’s company as we begin our 60th anniversary year.”

Mary Kay’s website currently shows:

Mary Kay Under the Leadership of Ryan Rogers

Things have not run smoothly under Ryan. While the sales directors and national sales directors generally show public support for him, praising how he keeps Mary Kay’s dream alive, behind the scenes, things may not be so happy. Mary Kay Inc. is aggressively cutting costs and the top tier of their pyramid is rapidly shrinking as a result. The retiring national sales directors are a good thing for Mary Kay because it saves the company a lot of money, but a terrible thing for the public image and motivation of the sales force.

In one of Richard’s filings in the lawsuit, he cites mismanagement of Mary Kay by his son, Ryan:

Did you catch that? Mary Kay Inc. is doing so poorly that dividends stop being paid in 2022. Dividends pay the profits of a company to the owners. Does this mean there are no profits and Mary Kay is losing money?

And Now to the Family Fighting

In 2021, Richard requested significant monthly distributions from the trust. Approximately 70% of the requested distributions were approved and paid. Richard asked for more, and people became upset. In 2023, Richard started asking questions about the Golden Rule entities mentioned above, and he ended up getting a lot of documents that he asked for.

But then in late 2024, Ryan sued his father over these financial issues related to the family trust.  (See the case history here.) The parties to the lawsuit in Dallas County court spent much time working to keep the documents out of the public eye. Ryan’s lawsuit was filed with a motion to seal the court records (i.e. make them inaccessible to the public) and thus many of the filings were not available for a year. Richard was opposed to sealing the records because he said it was just a way for Ryan to conceal his misdeeds from the public scrutiny. At the end of October 2025, the court denied the motions to seal, and we got to peek behind the curtain.

Right after Ryan’s lawsuit was filed, Richard asked MKHC to advance him money to pay expenses to defend himself in the lawsuits. MKHC initially advanced him $200,000 for legal fees, but then said he would get no more. Richard sued MKHC in Delaware (where the company is registered) to try to get the company to pay his legal fees. The magistrate ruled Richard was not entitled to have the company pay his legal fees, ending that lawsuit. What is interesting, however, is this excerpt from the magistrate’s ruling:

Before the oral argument, it was reported by counsel that Richard was purportedly removed from his positions as a director and officer of Mary Kay Holding Corporation on October 22, 2025. The removal was executed by Ryan, who is both a Petitioner in the Texas Action and the CEO of Mary Kay Holding Corporation, claiming to vote the majority of the corporation’s stock in favor of Richard’s removal. Following his removal as a director, the Board of Directors purported to remove Richard from his role as an officer. However, Counsel acknowledged that this recent development does not affect Mary Kay Holding Corporation’s obligation for advancement, of which I agree. This matter will not be addressed in the opinion as it does not relate to the primary issue at hand.

So why is Ryan suing his father????

Many years ago, Richard came up with guidelines for the family trust distributions. He said that if only 4% of the liquid assets (other than MKHC) and 20% of the MKHC dividend income were distributed, then the family’s assets would grow faster than inflation. In other words, if you keep the pile of money invested instead of distributing it to the heirs each year, the power of compounding investment returns makes the pile of money much bigger. The idea was that Mary Kay’s family wanted to preserve the family’s wealth to make sure it was there for future generations.

Also, Richard didn’t take distributions from the trust from 1975 to 2021. He was entitled to do so, but chose not to. From Ryan’s lawsuit:

Richard also clearly advised that he did not need or want distributions from the Trust because Richard wanted the Trust to benefit his descendants, not him. Indeed, Richard stayed true to his words after resigning as trustee and, for more than a decade, continued his 35-year streak of neither requesting nor receiving any distributions from the Trust.

That changed in 2021 when Richard and Nancy (his wife of 20+ years) started requesting distributions of $2 million per month. Here’s an interesting email about the money Richard was requesting and some possibilities for paying him. The trust has made the $2 million per month distributions beginning in May 2021 and continuing to the present time.

Ryan has a problem with the distribution request because the annual amount Richard is requesting is equal to the total annual distribution that is due to ALL beneficiaries of the trust. Sounds crazy, right? But remember, since 1975, Richard didn’t take a distribution even though he could have. Ryan says that Richard is now receiving 70% of the money being distributed from the trust each month, while the other 13 beneficiaries split the remaining 30%.

Then in November 2022, Richard requested a lump sum “catch up” payment of approximately $103 million from the trust. His request would have meant giving him 20% of the trust assets and Ryan says this isn’t fair to the other beneficiaries. Ryan was also bothered because Richard wouldn’t prove that he had a financial need for the money. The beneficiaries of the trusts are supposed to provide annual budgets and financial statements so the trustee can assess their needs before making distributions. Richard hasn’t provided the information and refuses to meet with Ryan.

In 2023, Richard requested an additional $5 million to be distributed, since the monthly distributions he started receiving caused him to owe income taxes. The trust approved this distribution.

In April 2024, Richard’s request for the “catch up” distribution was increased to over $138 million. At that time, Richard’s attorneys provided information about Richard’s income and expenses, but did not provide information about his or Nancy’s assets.

Pointing the Finger at Nancy

Richard’s third wife Nancy is alleged to be behind all of Richard’s money moves. They’ve been married for more than 25 years according to this August post on Instagram:

Why did Richard want these big distributions? Well Ryan alleges in his lawsuit:

The Co-Trustees also believe that the requested “catch-up” distribution is sought to increase Richard’s personal estate, which, based on information and belief, individuals or entities who are not Trust beneficiaries (like his third wife, Nancy) will inherit. Making the requested catch-up distribution to Richard would exclude the other Trust beneficiaries, violate the Trust’s purpose, and defy Richard’s previously stated intentions.

Ryan says the other beneficiaries are concerned. Well of course they are! Since 1975, Richard hasn’t taken distributions, so the other beneficiaries got to take more. Now he wants his share, and that means they won’t get to take as much. Ryan says dad is OLD and someone might be influencing him, so he needs to have an independent medical exam!

The Co-Trustees are also concerned that the large “catch-up” distribution request by Richard is not a voluntary request made by him alone, because it is contrary to Richard’s own prior guidelines, statements, and actions. The Co-Trustees are concerned that non-beneficiaries are unduly influencing Richard, resulting in his large distribution demands.

Of utmost concern, Richard is 82 years old and in poor health. He is wheelchair bound, medicated, and relies on others to care for him. Richard’s visitations and conversations have been limited and restricted.

For the past three years, Nancy is frequently, if not always, present when Richard meets with the Co-Trustees. She is not a Trust beneficiary, nor does she have any children who are descendants of Richard who would require her to be involved in the Trust. In December 2023, Richard attended one meeting of the beneficiaries of the Trust, and Nancy was also present. Richard appeared via Zoom and, shortly after logging in, his camera was turned off and he was muted. The Co-Trustees asked Richard a question, and he provided a one-word answer before his sound was again muted for him.

In 2022, Richard undertook estate planning changes, including gifting half of his Mary Kay Holding Corporation stock to Nancy.

The Rogers family is concerned about dad passing away and  his wife Nancy inheriting money. She can’t be a beneficiary of the trust, since Richard’s interest in the trust will be divided among his heirs (i.e. his children, grandchildren, etc) when he dies.

Terri (Richard’s daughter, Ryan’s sister) comes right out and says all of it.

Yes, things started getting weird.

In February 2025, Richard and Nancy adopted an adult, Olivia Abbott. Olivia is 22 years old and has no blood ties to Mary Kay’s family. Olivia’s biological mom appears to be a personal friend of Nancy’s.

Here is little Olivia with her new mommy and daddy:

And here she is in May 2025 with her biological mother, Amy Abbott, a high end wedding planner.

So why would Richard and Nancy “adopt” her? Terri says Nancy came up with this scheme so that a share of Richard’s interest in the trust would go to Olivia. Nancy cannot inherit Richard’s share of the trust. It can only go to his children. It appears that this new “child” of Richard is being used to funnel wealth toward Nancy.

The beneficiaries of the trust dispute whether Olivia can be a beneficiary since she was adopted as an adult. There are claims in the lawsuit against Nancy and Olivia for fraud related to the adoption and its true purpose.

From Rick’s (Richard’s son, Ryan’s brother) opposition to Olivia’s motion to dismiss the case against her:

From the allegations in this case, one can reasonably infer that the adoption of Olivia was orchestrated to access Trust assets. The adoption occurred in the midst of contentious litigation, soon after the Trustees challenged Richard’s request for a large catch-up distribution and sought an Independent Medical Examination of Richard’s health. Petitioners have raised their concern that Richard’s large requests are being used to enrich his estate and support non-beneficiaries, rather than for HEMS purposes as the Trust directs. From the allegations, it is plausible that this sham adoption is being used as a mechanism to leverage the Trustees and Beneficiaries in this lawsuit. Such an adoption, however, would contravene the settlor’s intent in creating a family Trust to provide for HEMS support of Mary Kay Ash’s family. The Court should see this for what it is “an act of subterfuge which in effect thwarts the intent of [Mary Kay Ash]” and “cheats the rightful [beneficiaries]” out of security provided by the Trust.

Richard’s Claims Against Ryan

Richard has filed a counterclaim in the case. In various filings he has made allegations:

• Ryan created the two Golden Rule entities to “siphon” profits from the trust and other Mary Kay family trusts into Ryan’s control
• Ryan has engaged in a self-dealing scheme to misappropriate the Mary Kay family wealth for his personal use and enrichment

Richard’s counterclaim was not made available on the court’s website, even after the order denying the request to seal documents. We’ll see if it becomes available at some time. But some of the claims he is making show up in other documents.

In one of Richard’s filings, he discusses:

As I understand this, Mary Kay paid dividends to the trust as well as to Richard personally. Richard lived off the dividends he personally received, which played into his decision to not take any distributions from the trust.

Remember: Richard started Mary Kay Cosmetics with his mom. The money in the trust all originated from MK. In other words, this is his money!!! Yes, he has set his heirs up financially, and has always said he wants them to have wealth for generations. But it all started with him and his mom, and it’s interesting to see the heirs fighting to stop Richard from accessing the money.

What’s Next

One thing is clear: There are lots of lawyers who are going to make lots of money from the Rogers family fighting. I can only imagine that the fees over the last year have collectively totaled a couple million dollars, if not more. This will likely take two or three more years to resolve, but who knows how long Richard will be around. It sounds like he is in very poor health. I can’t wait to see how the adoption of Olivia gets sorted out, and I hope we find out what kind of riches she was promised by going along with this adoption.

On the one hand, it makes sense that Richard may wish to access the money he was entitled to from 1975 to 2021. He didn’t take distributions and let the money grow, and maybe now he wants what is his. On the other hand, I can see that it is possible that his wife is pushing him to make these moves for her benefit, rather than sticking to his original plan of letting the money grow for the benefit of his children and grandchildren. (But also… if Richard wants his wife to access this money and have it after he dies, that’s a decision he’s allowed to make!!!)

But it doesn’t really matter much to me. Mary Kay is a corrupt business and the Rogers family wealth was accumulated at the expense of ordinary women whose families could not afford to lose money. Any blood shed as a result of this family fight will not cause me to lose one second of sleep.

Grab your popcorn and take a seat. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!