A Presley estate battle is brewing.
In a petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Priscilla Presley challenges the will of her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley. She questions the “authenticity and validity” of a 2016 amendment that replaced her and former business manager Barry Siegel as co-trustees with Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter Riley Keough and deceased son Benjamin Keough.
Lisa Marie Presley died on Jan. 12 after suffering cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, California. The singer and only child of Elvis Presley was 54.
Priscilla Presley and Siegel currently serve as the heads of a trust created in 1993 to manage the Presley estate. The Promenade Trust kept a 15 percent stake in Elvis Presley enterprises, which owns the singer’s intellectual property, after Lisa Marie Presley sold 85 percent of the company’s assets for roughly $100 million.
After her daughter’s death, Priscilla Presley says she discovered a document changing the trust. She stresses that the amendment was never delivered to her during her daughter’s lifetime as required by the terms of the trust.
“The foregoing method shall be the exclusive method by which this trust may be revoked or amended, or any amendment cancelled,” states the petition, which cites several cases in which changes to trusts were found invalid after it was concluded trustees weren’t notified.
Priscilla Presley also points out that the amendment misspells her name and that her daughter’s signature is “inconsistent with her usual and customary signature.” Other inconsistencies in the document include that it was never witnessed or notarized and that the provisions don’t appear on the signature page, as is customary.
The petition says Riley Keough is slated to become co-trustee of the trust with Priscilla Presley because Siegel “has already or will soon resign.” Priscilla Presley has not resigned as a trustee of the trust and plans to continue in her capacity, according to the document.
“Petitioner respectfully requests an order from this court determining that the Purported 2016 Amendment is invalid,” the filing reads.
Riley Keough is one of the trust’s beneficiaries, along with her sisters. Benjamin Keough died in 2020 of suicide.
A lawyer for Priscilla Presley didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.