Riley Keough, the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley, will be the the sole trustee for her late mother’s estate, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY.
Keough is petitioning the Los Angeles Superior Court to approve the settlement she reached in May with her grandmother, Priscilla Presley, and Lisa Marie’s ex-husband Michael Lockwood, the father and guardian ad litem of Keough’s younger half siblings, 14-year-old twins Finley and Harper Lockwood.
Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Lockwood, her fourth husband, divorced in 2021, but the two were still disputing finances in family court when she died.
Keogh’s representative had no further comment on the settlement. USA TODAY has also reached out to Keough’s attorney and representatives for Priscilla Presley and Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley.
The documents outline how the estate will be split between Lisa Marie’s family members and specify that Priscilla will be buried at Graceland as near as possible to Elvis, her ex-husband.
Lisa Marie, a singer and the only child of Elvis, died at a California hospital at age 54 on Jan. 12 after paramedics answered a 911 call reporting a woman in cardiac arrest. Her cause of death hasn’t been released.
After Lisa Marie’s death, Priscilla mounted a legal challenge disputing Keough’s oversight of the estate. Here’s a timeline of what’s happened:
January 2023: Priscilla Presley disputed who would oversee daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s estate
Priscilla filed legal documents disputing who would oversee the estate of her late daughter Lisa Marie in January, not long after her daughter’s death.
The filing in Los Angeles Superior Court disputed the validity of a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s living trust that removed Priscilla and a former business manager as trustees and replaced them with Lisa Marie’s two oldest children, Riley and Benjamin Keough, if she died or became incapacitated. Benjamin died in 2020.
Priscilla’s court filing listed several issues that brought the living trust amendment’s authenticity into doubt, including a failure to notify her of the change as required, a misspelling of her name in a document supposedly signed by her daughter, an atypical signature by Lisa Marie and a lack of a witness or notarization.
A living trust is a form of estate planning that allows a person to control their assets while alive, but have them distributed if they die. It serves the function of a will if a separate will is not filed, as appeared to be the case with Lisa Marie.
May 2023: Priscilla Presley settles dispute over Lisa Marie Presley’s estate trust
In May, Priscilla said the dispute had been “resolved.”
“My family has resolved all confusion as it relates to our plea to the court and request for document interpretation after my daughter Lisa Marie’s untimely passing,” Priscilla said in the statement to USA TODAY. “Although the media identified such a plea as a lawsuit, I want to make clear that there was never any lawsuit filed against my beloved granddaughter. As a family, we are pleased that we resolved this together.”
‘Resolved’:Priscilla Presley settles dispute over Lisa Marie Presley’s estate trust
“My family and I hope that everyone will grant us the privacy we have needed to properly grieve Lisa Marie and spend personal time together. We love and appreciate all of you and the Presley family is stronger than ever,” she said in her statement.
June 2023: Riley Keough to be the sole trustee to Lisa Marie Presley’s estate, petitions court to approve settlement
The settlement names Keough the sole trustee of Lisa Marie Presley’s estate and her two sisters’ sub-trusts. Priscilla will serve as trustee for her son, Navarone Garibaldi, who is Lisa Marie’s half brother. The trust will be split with one-ninth going to Garibaldi, and the remaining eight-ninths split between Keough and her sisters evenly, according to the documents.
As the sole trustee, Keough will be the owner of Graceland.
In exchange for Priscilla’s resignation as a trustee, Keough will pay Priscilla a lump sum and reimbursement of legal fees up to $400,000. Priscilla will serve as a “Special Advisor to the Trust” and will be compensated monthly by Keough. The amount of Priscilla’s reimbursement was redacted in the documents.
It’s not clear how much Lisa Marie Presley’s trust is worth
It is not clear how much that estate is worth, the Associated Press reported in January. A lawsuit Lisa Marie filed in 2018 against her former business manager Barry Siegel, alleging he had mismanaged the trust, said the assets had been worth in excess of $100 million, but most of that had been depleted. According to Forbes, Elvis’ estate generated $110 million in income in 2022.
Lisa Marie’s trust included ownership of Graceland and a 15% stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises, People reports.
Contributing: Elise Brisco, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press
