Priscilla Presley has filed legal documents disputing who oversees her late daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s estate.
The Los Angeles Superior Court filing last week questions the validity of a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie Presley’s living trust that removed Priscilla Presley and a former business manager as trustees and replaced them with Lisa’s two eldest children. Marie Presley, Riley Keough, and Benjamin Keough. if she died or became incapacitated. Benjamin Keough died in 2020.
A living trust is a form of estate planning that allows a person to control their assets while they live, but distribute them if they die. It serves the function of a will if a separate will is not filed, as seems to be the case with Lisa Marie Presley.
Lisa Marie Presley, singer and only daughter of Elvis Presley, died in a California hospital at age 54 on January 12 after paramedics responded to a 911 call reporting a woman in cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County coroner is investigating and has not yet provided a cause of death. She was buried at her family home, Graceland, on January 22.
Priscilla Presley’s court filing says there are several issues that cast doubt on the authenticity of the living trust amendment.
The filing says they include failure to notify Priscilla Presley of the change as required, a misspelling of Priscilla Presley’s name on a document purportedly signed by her daughter, an atypical signature by Lisa Marie Presley, and the lack of a witness or notarization. Ask a judge to declare the amendment invalid.
The filing says business manager Barry Siegel had intended to resign, which under the trust’s previous terms would leave Priscilla Presley, 77, and Riley Keough, 33, as co-trustees.
A message seeking comment from representatives for Riley Keough was not immediately returned.
Lisa Marie Presley left behind three surviving children. In addition to Riley Keough, her daughter with her first husband Danny Keough, she had 14-year-old twin daughters with her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood.
Presley filed for divorce from Lockwood in 2021, but the two were still arguing over finances in family court when she died.
The Priscilla Presley filing is one of the first of what will likely be many legal maneuvers surrounding the estate of Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley’s sole heir.
It is not clear, however, how much that heritage is worth. A lawsuit that Lisa Marie Presley filed in 2018 alleging that Siegel had mismanaged the trust said it was worth more than $100 million, but most of it had been depleted.
___
Follow AP entertainment writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
