Priscilla Presley Reaches Settlement Over Late Daughter’s Trust That Named Her Granddaughter, Riley Keough, as Beneficiary
The famous: they’re just like us, and love to fight in court. With the Elvis Presley legacy at stake, Priscilla Presley petitioned the court in January to overturn her late daughter’s trust.
Now, Ms. Presley has reached a settlement agreement in her petition challenging her late daughter, Lisa Marie Presley’s, trust, with her granddaughter, Riley Keough.
In a Los Angeles courtroom, Priscilla Presley’s attorney told the judge that “The parties would like to report that they've reached a settlement,” though the details of the agreement were sealed, via a motion by the family.
After a very public, bitter and decades-long feud between Priscilla Presley and her oldest daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Priscilla and Elvis Presley tragically died at 54 from cardiac arrest on January 12, 2023.
At the time of her sudden death, Lisa Marie Presley named her oldest daughter, actress Riley Keough, as the beneficiary of her estate.
Days after her daughter’s death in January, Priscilla Presley challenged the validity of Lisa Marie Presley’s trust in a Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Priscilla Presley, 77, filed the legal challenge to her late daughter’s will after learning that Lisa Marie Presley had amended the legal document in 2016. In the 2016 amended will, which was filed legally, Lisa Marie Presley removed her mother Priscilla Presley as the estate trustee. Removing her mother as the trustee meant that Priscilla Presley would not have control to oversee and manage her late daughter’s assets.
The Presley family assets are legendary and have been passed down through the generations via iconic performer Elvis Presley’s global legacy.
But suing over the famous Elvis Presley inheritance is nothing new in the family.
In 2018, Lisa Marie Presley sued former business manager Barry Siegel, claiming that he mishandled the $100 million trust she inherited after the death of Elvis Presley in 1977 to only $14,000. The lawsuit said that Siegal mismanaged the inheritance "through his reckless and negligent mismanagement and self-serving ambition.”
In 1977, when her father died, Lisa Marie Presley became a joint heir to Elvis Presley’s estate with her grandfather Vernon Presley and great-grandmother Minnie Mae Hood Presley. Vernon Presley died in 1979 and Minnie Mae Hood Presley passed away in 1980. After the co-heirs died, Lisa Marie Presley inherited Graceland.
Before Lisa Marie Presley died, she created the Promenade Trust, where daughter Riley Keough, a famous actress, and her now late brother, Benjamin Keough, plus her underage twin sisters, would take over the assets of her mother’s estate upon her death. Since Mr. Keough died by suicide in 2020 when he was twenty, Ms. Keough was now the sole trustee.
Simultaneously, the amended will removed both Priscilla Presley and the late Ms. Presley’s former business manager, Barry Siegel, as co-trustees.
Priscilla Presley’s petition fell under the California probate code, which does not allow for jury trials in trust disputes. Since the court battle began, numerous legal experts said they believed Priscilla Presley had a strong case.
The suit alleged that the original 2010 amendment to the will is still "the authoritative and controlling document," and is asking the court to find the 2016 amendment invalid. Priscilla Presley alleged that the 2016 document is not notarized nor witnessed. In court documents, Priscilla Presley claimed that she did not receive the amendment while her daughter was alive, as required by her trust, and that the document misspells Priscilla's name.
After the settlement was announced, the attorney for Priscilla Presley told journalists outside the courtroom that the family was once again unified.
"The families are happy," said Ronson J. Shamoun. ”Everyone is happy, unified, together and excited for the future.”
Though not official, celebrity news outlet TMZ reports that Priscilla is getting millions of dollars in the settlement.
