Mary Kay Cosmetics
November 17, 2025
In a final report issued November 17, 2025, a Delaware Court of Chancery magistrate concluded that Mary Kay co-founder Richard R. Rogers is not entitled to have Mary Kay Holding Corporation advance his legal fees in a Texas lawsuit over a family trust, granting summary judgment to the company in Richard R. Rogers v. Mary Kay Holding Corporation.
Rogers, who co-founded Mary Kay in 1963 with his mother, Mary Kay Ash, and served as executive chairman, is defending a declaratory judgment action filed November 1, 2024, in Dallas County, Texas, by the co-trustees of the Richard R. Rogers 1975 Trust: his son Ryan Rogers, the chief executive of Mary Kay Holding, and Tolleson Private Bank. The trustees sought guidance on his requests for distributions that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, and Rogers counterclaimed over the company's formation of Golden Rule Management and Golden Rule Investments to manage the family trusts. The company initially agreed in November 2024 to advance his expenses, including a 200,000 dollar retainer, but reversed course in December 2024.
Magistrate Loren Mitchell found the Texas case is a trust administration dispute that does not arise by reason of Rogers' service as a director, and that judgment will be entered for the company unless exceptions are timely filed. The report noted that Rogers was purportedly removed as a director and officer of Mary Kay Holding on October 22, 2025, by Ryan Rogers, who claimed to vote a majority of the company's stock, after which the board purported to remove him as an officer. The Texas case is set for trial on February 23, 2026.