Lisa Marie Presley estate dispute resolved in settlement
Priscilla Presley, shown at the Celine Fall/Winter 2023 Fashion Show in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2022, had asked the L.A. County Superior Court to determine the validity of a document amending the will of Lisa Marie Presley, her late daughter.
A settlement has been reached in a family dispute over the will of the late Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of music great Elvis Presley, lawyers told a Los Angeles judge on Tuesday.
The settlement, for which terms were not disclosed, is subject to court approval.
The deal resolves a dispute Priscilla Presley raised that challenged the validity of an amendment to the will of Lisa Marie Presley, her late daughter.
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“Everyone is happy,” said Ronson J. Shamoun, Priscilla Presley’s attorney, after the court hearing. Shamoun, who also represents Lisa Marie Presley’s trust (known as the Promenade Trust), described the family as “united.”
L.A. County Superior Court Judge Lynn H. Scaduto set Aug. 4 as the date for the next hearing in the case.
Representatives for Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter, Riley Keough, were present at the hearing. Lawyers for her other children appeared remotely.
The deal brings to an end uncertainty over who will control the late Lisa Marie Presley’s will, the legacy of the Graceland Mansion and many of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s personal possessions.
In 1993, Lisa Marie Presley had appointed her mother and then business manager Barry Siegel as co-trustees of her trust. However, after Lisa Marie Presley died on Jan. 12 in Los Angeles, her mother said she discovered an amendment to the will, dated March 11, 2016, that replaced them both as trustees upon her death.
Priscilla Presley in January asked the court to determine the validity of the amendment. In her filing, she said the amendment stipulated that she and Siegel would be replaced by Lisa Marie’s eldest children, Riley Keough, 33, and Benjamin Keough — who died in 2020 at age 27.
However, Priscilla Presley questioned the authenticity of Lisa Marie Presley’s signature on the document, noting that the document misspelled Priscilla Presley’s name and that the amendment was never delivered to her during her daughter’s lifetime “as required by the express terms of the trust.”
Moreover, the document was never witnessed or notarized. According to her filing, Priscilla Presley believed Siegel would resign as co-trustee, lining up Riley Keough as co-trustee alongside her.
Lisa Marie Presley is survived by her three daughters, actor Riley Keough and twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, from two different ex-husbands.
When she died she owned Elvis’ iconic Memphis, Tenn., mansion, Graceland, and retained ownership of her father’s costumes, cars, awards and other possessions, according to the mansion’s website. Presley, 54, had helped oversee her late father’s estate before she died earlier in January after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Despite the legal wrangling, Priscilla Presley had denied any family rift in a February statement.
Siegel and Lisa Marie Presley had battled in court in 2018, after Presley sued Siegel over alleged financial mismanagement and claimed to be more than $16 million in debt that year. Siegel then countersued, accusing Presley of wasting her inheritance and owing him money.
Source: Los Angeles Times
