Last week, Priscilla Presley contested her late daughter’s will, raising the possibility of a rift between the family and a protracted legal dispute over who would manage Elvis’ sizable assets.
However, legal experts predict that the court will support Priscilla’s argument.
Presley urged a judge in a court filing in Los Angeles to throw out a 2016 agreement that had recently come to light and substituted her and Barry Siegel (her daughter’s former manager) as co-trustees of Lisa Marie Presley’s trust with Riley and Benjamin Keough.
The reasons given by Elvis’ ex-wife include the possibility that her daughter’s signature was falsified.
Priscilla Presley has a strong case, according to lawyer Benny Roshan, chair of Greenberg Glusker’s Trusts and Probate Litigation Group.
They have made claims that, in my opinion, warrant serious worry, Roshan added.
Even while the lawsuit doesn’t indicate a conflict between mother and daughter, it has made the family’s private negotiations over the rock star’s fortune public.
According to Lisa Marie Presley’s Jan. 26 petition, she named Siegel and her mother as co-trustees of her trust in 1993.
However, her mother said she found an update to the will, dated March 11, 2016, after she passed away on January 12 in Los Angeles, replacing them both as trustees following her passing.
The addendum, according to Priscilla Presley, was never given to her while Lisa Marie was still living, as stipulated in the original trust, she claimed. She mentioned in her petition that Priscilla’s name was misspelled on the document’s date, that her signature did not match how she usually signed off, and that it was neither witnessed nor notarized.
According to Cynthia Brittain of Karlin & Peebles, “They’re pretty good points.” The case law is rather clear if everything is as they claim.
Roshan added that California law states that directions given out in such a document should be obeyed, in addition to the fact that the original trust contract specifies the procedure for updating it.
Roshan stated that California law “confirms Priscilla’s stance that an instrument is not legal if it includes a certain manner of revocation, amendment, or alteration, and you do not follow it.” “You have a number of grounds to contest this new amendment.”
Fox Rothschild partner Sarah J. Wentz concurred.
Wentz affirmed, “I believe she does [have a strong case].” “Priscilla will remain as the trustee, in my opinion, unless [Riley] has some sort of argument that there was bias against her and that the trustee couldn’t be fair and unbiased to her.”
Wentz further pointed out that the petition makes a point of the fact that the text of the amendment was not included in the signature, which Priscilla Presley claimed “may create a larger risk of fraud.”
According to Ryan Sellers of the legal firm Hales & Sellers in Dallas, if the dispute necessitates the court’s examination of the signature’s veracity, a jury may determine the case in some areas, such as Texas.
However, the Presley case falls within the California probate code, which prohibits jury trials in trust issues.
Will validity disputes frequently end up in court, especially when prominent people are involved?
According to Roshan, “it’s fairly usual for the family to come forward and contest a specific alteration that the decedent made during their lifetime.”
Priscilla Presley denied any family strife in a statement on Friday despite the legal issue.
She said, “I loved Elvis very much, just as he loved me. “The result of our love is Lisa. It would be insulting to the family legacy and to what Elvis left behind in his life for anyone to hold any other opinion.
Riley Keough, an actor, 33, and twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, from two different ex-husbands, are Lisa Marie Presley’s remaining children. Benjamin, her son, passed away in 2020 at the age of 27.
The kids have not yet offered any feedback regarding Priscilla’s filing. When The Times contacted Riley Keough for comment, there was no response.
Although Lisa Marie’s ownership of the Elvis estate, which includes the popular Graceland, has diminished over the years, it is still substantial. According to the website for the estate, she also kept ownership of her father’s outfits, vehicles, honors, and other belongings.
According to a previous Graceland spokeswoman, the Graceland property is held in a trust and will now be used for Lisa Marie’s children’s benefit. The spokesman stated that neither the management nor the business would change.
She always intended for her two children to run her inheritance, according to Joel Weinshanker, managing partner at Elvis Presley Enterprises, the company established by the Elvis Presley Trust that Lisa Marie once held.
There was never any doubt in her mind that they would serve as the stewards and that they would perceive the situation similarly to her.
Lisa Marie Presley and Siegel fought in court in 2018. She sued Siegel for alleged financial mismanagement, claiming to be over $16 million in debt at the time. Then, Presley’s old manager countersued, claiming that she had wasted her inheritance and owed him money.
It stated that Siegel either intended to resign as co-trustee or had already done so. Riley Keough, the daughter of Lisa Marie, would take Siegel’s position, according to the petition.
Riley Presley’s desire to serve as Priscilla’s co-trustee on the estate is unknown, which could impede the court’s judgment, according to Brittain.
Putting the granddaughter and her grandmother together might not be in the best interests of the beneficiaries, according to Brittain, if the granddaughter does not want to serve with her grandma or if there is some sort of conflict.
When there is controversy inside the family, we frequently appoint corporate trustees, according to Brittain. “For one, the family has suffered a great loss, and everyone is in mourning. People have been known to grab for control in an effort to keep the deceased near to them—not because they are inherently domineering. Maybe the petitioner thinks that way she can be closer to her granddaughter.”
