Back in 2018, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis joined the growing list of celebrities going on record that they will not leave their kids an inheritance. This was part of their Raise No @$$holes parenting plan. Ashton said, at the time, that he’d be giving his fortune away to charity and “various things.” As happens, this story came back around last week when a site called @PopTingz posted the news. And, as also happens, Twitter decided to surge the debate all over again with half the people congratulating the couple on their plans and the other half accusing them of ripping the silver spoon out of their kids’ mouths.
If you’ve been on Twitter, then you know why everyone is talking about Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis.
Twitter is fighting over this resurfaced piece of information about Kutcher and Kunis’s financial plan. On March 30, a social media account named @PopTingz talked about the news from 2018, saying, “Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis reveal they will donate their $275 million fortune to charity and not leave anything for their children. They say they don’t want their children to become spoiled and entitled, and want them to be motivated to work hard.”
Now, safe to say Twitter has been kinda losing it over this news, spurring on quite a bit of controversy. Many believe this is a sort of cruel gesture, with many saying things like “i would hate being their nepo baby” and “So they not bathing the kids AND leaving them penniless?! Sick and twisted.” (This refers to the controversy that Kutcher and Kunis don’t bathe their children unless they’re visibly dirty.)
However, quite a few defended this move, saying that it wouldn’t affect their kids in the long run. One Twitter user wrote, “It’s fine; just because they’re the children of a famous couple, they will have opportunities a little easier than the others.”
I honestly have no opinion what one does with their fortune. I feel if you tell the children what to expect – there will be inheritance or there won’t be inheritance – all’s fair. But make your decision and leave it at that. My issue has always been the judgmental explanation implying there’s a right choice or a wrong choice. Perhaps it is important to someone to leave their money to their family because they worked very hard for their fortune, and they don’t want their family to work that hard. Or they are trying to establish generational wealth to offer a leg up to combat systemic factors working against their offspring. Or maybe they want entitled brats – I don’t know, it’s their money. And having money does not necessarily mean a person will be lazy, nor does not having it mean they won’t. Just do what you want with your money and let others do the same.
There are a few points made about what charity exactly are they leaving the cash to? Because Ashton and Mila have their own charities. And if they leave cash to charities, they get tax breaks. And they can pull interest, incentives or salaries from the charities if they are on the board or hold positions. And they can appoint their kids to those charities either while they are still alive or when they die, causing all those benefits to trickle down. So, sure, they could donate the cash to charity, and it would still benefit their kids.
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- Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis arrive on the red carpet of the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at the Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022.,Image: 673568268, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Avalon Licensing Ltd. do not claim any Copyright of the attached image WORLD RIGHTS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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It’s their business and no one else’s what they do with their money.
Same.
The one thing I can’t stand about the internet is how much people insert themselves into other people’s choices, decisions, and everything in between.
It’s like sit the hell down and STFU.
Money is not the only factor in becoming an asshole. Given that Ashton didn’t grow up as a multimillionaire, his logic falls short because he’s basically a poster boy for assholery.
Yeap. Exactly.
If you feel that having too much money makes you a jerk, then why are you sitting on all that money at all? Give it away now and maybe Ashton will be less of an a-hole.
Seems a bit extreme to me. Why not just leave your kids a reasonable amount? It doesn’t have to be millions.
their children will get every benefit/privilege of having super rich, celebrity parents growing up and, probably, access to financial support if needed well into adulthood while Kunis & Kutcher are alive. They’re being given an amazing opportunity to be able to establish their financial well-being during their parents’ lifetime and should be able to set up their own financial security without an inheritance after their parents die (there are probably also trusts set up for them that they’ll be able to access when they’re adults without waiting for an inheritance that’s part of a will). They’re getting the real time benefit of their parents extreme wealth so why do they need even a small inheritance?
The kids will still have a lot of advantages that come from growing up with RICH rich parents: for example, I imagine they’ll go to whatever post-secondary they want, all expenses paid (no part time job or student loan!) They’ll likely also be gifted home or homes, go on nice vacations with mom and dad etc etc. Kind of like how Lourdes (Madonna’s daughter) lives (I think… I’m trying to remember that recent interview of hers.)
They’ll go into adult life with a set up very few of us have a chance at, just without several million extra dollars cash at their eventual disposal
And don’t forget the most important thing – connections. They will have strong, established relationships with a network of some of the most powerful and influential people in the world. This will give them access to all the opportunities they could want.
Ashton and Mila will leave their kids plenty of money through 529 (college funds) and trusts. I’ll bet they leave them property. I also agree that they will put them on the board of one of their charities for a reasonable salary. They just won’t outright leave them millions, which is fine.
This is so subjective, but I find them to be extraordinarily well-matched in terms of being over-rewarded and annoying, separately and together
I feel exactly the same way about these two!
I can understand not wanting to leave a massive amount of money to their children. But with their net worth, why not leave them a reasonable amount of money (for them) like five million apiece, to cover for emergency health expenses not covered by insurance – I just had to have an expensive medically necessary surgery not covered by insurance because no one in my network could do the surgery. Obviously maybe there are trusts set up, housing already procured, etc. But I do think it’s unfair to the children to be expected to go out and easily get a normal job because of their parents fame. They haven’t had an average upbringing and likely will never lead normal lives.
I think they said their children would be “taken care of” or something along those lines, so I’m assuming they are going to leave them SOMETHING. Or set up trusts for them (they probably already have those set up) etc. And I’m assuming education will be fully covered, they’ll buy them houses, that kind of thing. and the kids will be in a better position career-wise from the start anyway.
these kids will still grow up incredibly privileged without a trust fund. they’ll go to the best schools, meet and mingle with high net worth people in entertainment and outside, know they have a huge safety net even if they fail in life, and will have no debt. it is their money, and i’m sure they’re going to take care of their kids outside of not leaving them their entire fortune.
The kids deserve at least just a little for how much their parents threw them under the bus with the bathing discussion, so…
exactly, I don’t care for their decision, either way, but their explanation is sooo holier than thou, it’s sooo freaking annoying. Also, as if their kids will be left penniless. like you’ve said, their kids will probably sit as head or as key figures of their charities, will be gifted properties when their parents are still alive without having to mortgage, their education will be paid for without any student loans/or be given a good starting capital/connections for their business ventures and voilà, kids can still say they had to work hard for their money without help of their parents cause mummy and daddy excluded them from their wills.
If you don’t want to raise a$$holes, then sell your mansion and move into a tiny apartment somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Don’t let your kids watch tv/movies or use the internet. Don’t take them on lavish vacations. Don’t buy them nice clothes. I mean if you’re going to raise an a$$hole, you can do that without inheritance. You can also raise an a$$hole if you’re not rich too. There are plenty of people who grew up with rich parents and didn’t become a$$holes. They can do what they want with their money, but their explanation is really insulting. Plus we all know Nepo babies exist. When these kids are old enough, I am sure mommy and daddy will be pulling strings to get them their careers, or at least have doors open for them.
I am so distracted by that photo. My goodness. Ashton is aging like eggs.
In my experience, people with that kind of fortune who say they’re leaving “nothing” to their kids typically leave each kid a million or two and give the rest away. They’re not lying, exactly, because they (and their kids) actually believe that one or two million dollars is “nothing.”
I don’t know, sometimes nothing means nothing. About a decade ago or so there was a documentary about rich kids and one story was about a young artist who was working as a nanny to support herself. She was quite young but had cancer and it highlighted how she couldn’t afford the treatments as she had no insurance. Well, it turns out her grandfather was super wealthy (Buffet?) who had said he was not going to give any of his grandkids money so they learn to forge ahead on their own and support themselves. The young woman was in a truly horrific situation and was not helped one iota by her grandfather. So, yeah, sometimes nothing means nothing.
Of course they aren’t going to give their kids an inheritance. They don’t even give them frigging baths.
I just want to say her gown is amazing. On the inheritance, no comment aside from “unsurprised.”
The smug is rolling off these two.
I’m really disliking them more and more. The more they talk about their lives together and their kids, the more I dislike them.
$275M? That is a huge amount of $$.
As other have said, establish trust funds of say, $5M for each kid for education, housing, transportation.
Then trust funds for themselves of $10M each.
Donate the rest to charities now. Why wait?
Between 2 adults and 2 minor children trusts equalling $30M is more than enough for 4 lifetimes+.
If AK is such a money making genius, he should be able to donate $10M a year and have investments that bring that in and keep feeding the principal.
I’m so tired of all the wealth hoarding.
I’ve been hearing this “I’m going to donate it all to charity when I die” for decades now.
Didn’t Buffett, Gates, and others sign some agreement to this?
Well, do it now!
Warren Buffett has got to be close to 90. David Geffen is a billionaire and 80 years old, Bezos, Steve Jobs family, the Walmart family, Elon (who I don’t actually think he has as much as he claims) The Woz, King Charles, and a ton of others. The 1% are vile.
I grew up wealth adjacent. One of the issues with this attitude is that if you treat your children worse than the parents of the friends they grew up with, financially or otherwise, you are creating a whole different set of problems. Pretending that this is the kid’s problem for being “ungrateful” is ugly.
PSA re: wills
– Talk to your kids (or find a polite way to talk to your parents) about the will. Remove the surprises, set expectations.
– Also – make sure someone knows where to find the darn thing! Is it in a fireproof safe hidden somewhere in the house? Is it in a random drawer? Is it in the bank? It’s probably NOT with the attorney – no attorney I know wants to be responsible for the original copy of the will, they will only have scans of it, and you need the original to open probate.
– If you have multiple kids, don’t make one of them the executor, choose a trusted person adjacent to your family (one of your own siblings, a trusted friend, etc). Grieving + probate + one person holding all the control/responsibility = an absolute disaster for sibling relationships. Don’t get smug and think it can’t possibly happen with your kids. It’s a fraught time and it happens ALL. THE. TIME.
– It’s YOUR money. If you want to spend it all to the last dime living your best life in your final years, you know what, you literally earned it, go ahead and spend like it’s going out of style. If it’s super important to you to create generation wealth, go for it. If it’s super important to you to donate a chunk or the whole freaking thing to charity, go for it. It’s YOUR money, it doesn’t belong to someone who assumes they are your heir.
Source: Raised by an estate attorney
*Not legal advice, etc. etc., just common sense that no one seems to know about because no one likes talking about their own mortality
I agree with the need to communicate clearly in advance to avoid confusion later.
As for storing wills, as an estate planning attorney, this can vary a lot by firm. Our practice is to keep the original documents unless the client wants to keep them. It’s much easier to give them to the executor than having them tear the house apart looking for a will. *But* we have been doing this for decades & have a very robust tracking/storage system that includes climate controlled facilities with firesafes. If I were a solo practitioner or a smaller firm, it might be different.
I would honestly hate to be rich and have kids. Because they will grow up rich regardless. They will go to private schools and good colleges. They will see the world, have the best healthcare and so on. How do you inspire a work ethic? Mila and Ashton don’t come from money, quite the opposite. So they don’t even have a blueprint. I think my solution would be to force my kids to take jobs in the service industry for a while. NOTHING humbles you like sticking that out. You learn so much.
I think what rich parents forget is that you can leave them money. They will still have to fend for themselves until you die. LOL And if they manage that, they’ll be fine. Just don’t do what the Beckhams did with their eldest. That’s not great.
My husband and I went to school for dozens of years, work ourselves to the bone, buy ourselves Walmart clothes to afford the best school in the city, took our life savings to invest in a big commercial property, and so on, to ensure that our children inherit our wealth and are able to love comfortably and happily in this
tumultuous country with increased inflation and political unrest. Ashton and Mila are weird af. Full stop.
This. I really think it may just come down to a belief system with which you are instilled from a young age. I was always raised to believe that each generation does what it can so that the next generation can live better than they did.
Money issues are a huge (if not the number one) source of stress and to want to alleviate that for your children, to my mind, is not just good sense but good, loving, parenting. Congratulations to you on all your efforts to secure a comfortable life for your children!
Aw thanks 🥹
We don’t know that this means they won’t give their kids anything financially their whole lives. I bet they make sure their kids get a debt-free education, maybe a nest-egg to buy a house, and use any connections to further their career. By the time Ashton and Mila die, hopefully their children will be well-established and middle-aged anyways.
My parents have a similar approach – they’ve helped us out tremendously to set-up our lives, but I’m not counting on an inheritance when they die.
This sounds like a vague comment from 4-5 years ago, and no one except them has any idea what the reality is, yet are making wildly swinging assumptions.
the salty ppl leaving hate comments are the ppl that are jealous they don’t have rich mommy and daddies. their money, their choice. period.
and regardless, these kids will grow up incredibly privileged with way more doors open for them to succeed than the regular person.
I’m not really worried about their kids. They will grow up incredibly privileged getting the best possible start in life.
Neither of them is aging well, IMO. So much for their claim that bathing dries out your skin, or whatever. They don’t look good and should bathe more with moisturizing soap. Never thought we’d ever be talking about the bathing habits of the stars, but they did bizarrely start that whole conversation.