Lisa-Marie Presley Was the Sole Beneficiary of Elvis’ Estate—Take a Look at Her Fortune Before She Died
By Jason Pham,
4 hours ago
As the daughter of the “King of Rock and Roll,” there’s always been interest in Lisa Marie Presley ‘s net worth and how much she inherited from her father, Elvis Presley, after his death . There have since been rather bitter battles over her estate, which caused a rift between her daughter Riley Keough, and Priscilla Presley.
Lisa Marie Presley was born on February 1, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Elvis and Priscilla . Her parents divorced when she was four years old. She was nine years old when her father died on August 16, 1977, of a cardiac arrest.
Like her father, Lisa Marie was also a singer. She released three albums: 2003’s To Whom It May Concern ; 2005’s Now What ; and 2012’s Storm and Grace . Her first album reached Gold certification with the Recording Industry Association of America and reached number five on the Billboard 200 chart. After a life in the spotlight, Lisa Marie died on January 12, 2023, in Calabasas, California. She was 54 years old.
What was Lisa Marie Presley’s net worth?
Lisa Marie Presley’s net worth was negative $10 million at the time of her death, according to Celebrity Net Worth . In 2018, Lisa Marie sued her former manager, Barry Siegel, for the alleged “reckless and negligent mismanagement” of her estate, which had left her with only $14,000, according to court documents obtained by The Blast . Siegel countered the suit and claimed that the low amount was a result of Lisa Marie’s excessive spending. He also demanded $800,000 in damages from Lisa-Marie for non-payment.
In the court documents, Siegel claimed that Lisa-Marie’s 2005 deal to sell 85% of her shares of Elvis Presley Enterprises, which he negotiated, “cleared up over $20m in debts Lisa had incurred and netted her over $40m cash and a multi-million dollar income stream.” Lisa-Marie, however, claimed that the deal lost her millions due to a subsequent investment in Core Entertainment, the production company behind American Idol that went bankrupt in 2016.
The deal was said to have “cleared up over $20m in debts Lisa had incurred and netted her over $40m cash and a multi-million dollar income stream”. Presley says it lost her millions thanks to a subsequent investment in Core Entertainment, the company behind American Idol that went bankrupt in 2016. According to tax filings obtained by The Guardian , the Presley Charitable Foundation has operated at an annual loss each tax year since 2009. The Guardian also reported that annual revenue was down to just $26 in one year.
The lawsuit between Lisa Marie and Siegel came at the time of her divorce from her fourth husband, Michael Lockwood, in 2018. According to court documents obtained by People , Lisa Marie claimed that she was $16.7 million in debt as a result of what she owed in income taxes, a defaulted mortgage and credit card bills. Lisa Marie’s business manager at the time, Justin Stiegemeyer—who was responsible for her “day-to-day finances and paying all of her bills”—claimed her had had first learned of her debt while her former business manager, Provident Financial Management, was handling her finances.
As a result, Stiegemeyer claimed that Lisa Marie “had not been provided with proper accountings or notices or been kept abreast of her finances” by her former business manager and that she had “total liquid assets of less than $20,000” at the time they were fired. Stiegemeyer also reported that, “by the end of 2015,” there were “no additional funds” other than “the approximately $20,00 of liquid assets” available to Lisa Marie to use to pay her debts. He added that a majority of her debts were related to unpaid income taxes” from 2012 to 2015, which “total over $10 million.”
Stiegemeyer also claimed that Lisa Marie owed almost $50,000 in credit card debt and that she had already paid off one of three “outstanding American Express cards each totaling approximately $300,000” in October 2017 and made the final payment on a “Citicard credit card with a balance due of $111,083” in January 2018. He stated at the time that the remaining outstanding American Express bills were expected to be “paid in full in September 2018.” “Suffice it to say that in addition to having to pay off these debts, the payment issues with these cards has caused [Lisa Marie’s] credit to be significantly impaired,” Stiegemeyer said.
Stiegemeyer also stated that Lisa Marie hoped at the time to start payments toward her income tax debt “once we have paid off the credit cards and various legal fee debts and obligations.” The court documents also revealed that Lisa Marie had defaulted on a mortgage of a $6 million house she owned in the United Kingdom, which she had been trying to sell for two years at the time.
According to the court documents, Lisa Marie received a monthly salary of $4,361 from Elvis’ estate at the time, as well as $100,000 in dividends and interest from investments. Lisa Marie detailed her debt in response to a February 2017 court order requiring her to cover $50,000 of Lockwood’s $450,000 divorce attorney fees.
How much did Lisa Marie Presley inherit from Elvis?
How much did Lisa Marie Presley inherit from Elvis? Lisa Marie’s father, Elvis Presley, died on August 16, 1977. He was 42 years old. Elvis’ will appointed his father, Vernon Presley, as the executor and trustee of his estate. The beneficiaries of the trust were Vernon; Lisa Marie; and Elvis’ grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley. Because Lisa Marie was 9 years old at the time of her father’s death, her inheritance was held until her 25th birthday.
After Vernon’s death in 1979, Lisa Marie’s mother and Elvis’ ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, was named as one of three trustees in Elvis’ will. The other trustees were the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis and Joseph Hanks, who had been Elvis’ accountant. After Minnie Mae’s death in 1980, Lisa Marie became the only surviving beneficiary. Lisa Marie inherited Elvis’ whole estate on her 25th birthday on February 1, 1993. Due to his years of excessive spending and being bilked by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’ estate was worth $5 million at the time of his death, with just $1 million dedicated to Lisa Marie before the deaths of Vernon and Minnie Mae.
However, by the time Lisa Marie inherited Elvis’ whole estate in 1993, the amount had grown to $100 million, thanks to the stewardship of Priscilla. “I tried to ignore it,” Lisa Marie told People at the time. “I think it’s time. I do [have new responsibilities], but it’s not like a major new thing, except maybe for people who didn’t know my role.” She continued of her new role at the time as the owner of the Elvis Presley Trust, “Everything remains the same, except I’m on the management team now.”
Jerry Schilling, Lisa Marie’s manager, and Elvis’ longtime friend, also told People at the time of Lisa Marie’s readiness to inherit her father’s estate. “I think marriage and motherhood have made her a responsible person,” he said at the time. “I have seen her grow so much.” He continued, “If [the inheritance] had happened five years ago, it potentially could have affected her. But I think I Lisa has prepared herself.”
Lisa Marie also praised Priscilla’s stewardship over the estate in the interview with People. “She’s done an astounding job,” she said. “She’s incredible, and I have huge admiration and respect for what she’s accomplished.”
In 1998, Lisa Marie became more involved as the owner and chairman of the board of the Elvis Presley Trust and its business entity, Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. She told 85 percent of the estate’s business holdings to CKX Inc. (now known as Industrial Media, LLC) with the exception of Graceland and the properties within it. After Lisa Marie’s death in 2023, Graceland and her trust were inherited by her daughters, Riley Keough and Harper and Finley Lockwood, a representative for Graceland confirmed to People .
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local News
