Who Made The Bad Decision In The Osmond Family? The Complicated Truth About The Loss Of Their $100 M
Decades before the Duggar family became rich, famous, and more powerful than people think, The Osmonds became superstars. Known for releasing several hits songs that could be enjoyed by the whole family, The Osmonds made a fortune from all of their success in music.
While The Osmonds must have been overjoyed to become so successful, the money they made didn't pay off the way they hoped. The reason for that is at one point the family lost almost all the money they once made.
How Did The Osmond Brothers Lose So Much Money?
In 2014, Jimmy Osmond spoke to The Telegraph in a wide-ranging interview that revealed a lot about his family's background. By far the most attention-grabbing aspect of that interview was what Osmond revealed about his family's finances.
After Jimmy Osmond and his brothers released their first hit song, The Osmonds went on to make a lot of money. As Osmond explained, it was their father who tried to teach his children to be responsible with that money.
"My dad was quite conservative. He was an army sergeant and he always taught us all to learn the value of a dollar. My mother was always trying to spoil us. I began performing at the age of three and my brothers had already started, but we never really did it for the money. We just did it because we wanted it to be great entertainment."
On top of teaching his kids the value of money, Osmond says his father was the one who decided what his kids would do with the money they made from their careers.
"We never got allowances or anything as children. My dad always pooled our money and he was really smart and he invested all the money in various real estate portfolios."
Based on what their father taught them to do, Osmond and his brothers decided that they needed to be responsible with their pooled fortune. However, the brothers clearly didn't understand finances enough, so someone was hired to handle their fortune for them. Tragically, the brothers' attempt to be responsible is what lost most of their money.
"We ended up hiring people to look after the money and then we wondered what happened." While speaking to The Telegraph, Jimmy Osmond made it clear that his family lost far more money from trusting the wrong people than the vast majority of people will ever make. "We lost about $80m, maybe $100m in today’s money [about £60m at current exchange rates]"
A lot of the time when people talk about stars losing money, they are referring to stories like Michael Keaton missing out on making $18 million because he passed on Lost. When it comes to The Osmonds, however, they spent years performing to make tens of millions which then disappeared.
Based on Jimmy Osmond's explanation of how his family lost so much money, it seems clear they trusted the wrong person. In that case, it likely was a series of decisions that the people who controlled The Osmonds' money made that lost their fortune.
That said, it seems pretty clear that the original decision that led to The Osmonds going broke came from the family patriarch. If the Osmond brothers' father didn't teach them to pool their earnings, it would have been very unlikely that they all would have lost so much cash simultaneously.
On top of that, Jimmy Osmond also explained during his interview with The Telegraph that his dad wouldn't let the family sue to get their money back. "We were taken advantage of by our advisers but my dad would never sue them. He was never that kind of man. His handshake was as good as a contract and he was a great example to me."
What Happened After The Osmonds Went Broke?
While The Osmonds became famous as an early boy band, Donny Osmond later became more associated with the duo he formed with his sister Marie Osmond. As such, it doesn't make sense to compare how much money Donny and Marie Osmond have now to how rich their other brothers are.
Still, it is fascinating to look at how rich the celebrity brother and sister duo reportedly are now. According to Whos Dated Who, Donny Osmond has a healthy $18 million fortune as of this writing which is exceeded by the $20 million that Marie Osmond enjoys.
When it comes to Marie Osmond, it could be argued that what she is going to do with her fortune is even more interesting. Similar to other stars like Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher who plan to give their estate away, Marie Osmond has pledged to not leave her fortune to her kids.
During Jimmy Osmond's aforementioned interview with The Telegraph, he explained what saved him and his brothers from complete financial ruin. Since their father had been wise enough to invest some of their money in real estate, they were able to liquidate in their time of need.
"Thank goodness he did, as he was able to sell off a lot and clear our obligations when things changed." As important as it was that Jimmy Osmond and his siblings had a nest egg to fall back on, he says that they took something more important from their financial perils.
After Jimmy Osmond estimated how much money was lost during his interview with The Telegraph, he explained why he is thankful that his family lost so much money.
"It’s actually the best thing that ever happened to my brothers and me because it made us really appreciate how to manage money and it forced us to refocus. We’d got to the point where we could have our own airplanes, and your attitude changes when you have that kind of money."
Jimmy Osmond continued, "It didn’t leave us destitute but we had to start over. It was a wonderful thing, because my brothers are the most humble guys you will ever meet. You go to our homes now – they’re nice, but they’re not over the top. If it had turned out different with the money, we might have all turned out a little bit more arrogant."
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErZ%2Bippeoe6S7zGiuoaddoby0wIytn55ln6i6sLrDZp2apZmhxm59j2lkpqGcobawuoydpqWkkafAbrDOp6WinV2Wu6V5zJqpop1do7K1edaoqa2gXw%3D%3D