How rich are Elvis Presley's heirs? Riley Keough, Harper Lockwood and more
Elvis Presley's heirs
At the time of his death, Elvis left behind an estate that was cash-poor, valued at just $5 million – equivalent to $28 million (£21m) in 2026 – alongside substantial debts. His bleak financial situation stemmed from his extravagant spending and the mismanagement of his money by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
So how have Elvis' heirs fared since his death?
Read on to discover the many ups and downs of the dynasty over the decades, from fame and fortune to debt and divorces.
All dollar amounts in US dollars
Priscilla Presley
The couple welcomed their daughter Lisa Marie Presley in February 1968. Although they divorced in 1973, they remained close friends. In fact, Priscilla even referred to her late ex-husband as "the love of my life" in 2022.
Today, Priscilla is rich and famous in her own right with an estimated net worth of $10 million (£7.5m). Let's delve into how she's made her millions over the decades.
Supersized divorce settlement
As the mother of Elvis's only child, Priscilla was entitled to half the income from their shared property, as well as a portion of Presley's publishing royalties and alimony in the divorce settlement.
She also received an upfront cash payment of $725,000, which is the equivalent of around $5.5 million (£4m) today.
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Fashion icon
Priscilla could have easily lived a life of luxury on her hefty divorce settlement. However, she opted to launch the first of her many money-making ventures the very same year that she separated from The King.
She founded luxury Beverly Hills fashion boutique Bis & Beau (pictured) with her long-time friend and stylist Olivia Bis. Famed for her big bouffant hair, dramatic winged eyeliner and babydoll dresses, the ever-glam Priscilla was a style icon in her prime, so it’s only natural that she capitalised on her passion for fashion.
Along with Bis, Priscilla designed the clothes stocked in the now-defunct store, which once counted Hollywood stars like Cher and Natalie Wood among its clientele.
Business-savvy starlet
Priscilla was appointed trustee of the Elvis Presley estate in 1979 following the death of Presley's father Vernon. Unfortunately, her new position came with the burden of handling the massive debts.
Elvis was in debt at the time of his death, despite his lifetime earnings reportedly sitting somewhere between $100 million and $1 billion. As mentioned, he was worth $5 million ($28/£21m today) when he died, but he owed double that figure to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
In an effort to turn things around, Priscilla established Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) in 1981. The new company set up lucrative merchandising, publishing, and licensing deals, and transformed Presley's former Memphis home Graceland into a booming tourist attraction.
Thanks to Priscilla’s sharp business acumen, the estate was debt-free again by 1993 and worth $100 million – around $230 million (£170m) when adjusted for inflation.
From soap operas to the silver screen
Priscilla began studying acting while married to Elvis and made her screen debut in 1983, when she featured in the TV movie Love is Forever. Her big break came that very same year when she was cast as Jenna Wade in American soap opera Dallas.
After departing Dallas, her fame and fortune were further boosted by scoring the role of Jane Spencer (pictured) in The Naked Gun movie trilogy between 1988 and 1994.
Today, she boasts 18 acting credits on her IMDb profile, compared to Elvis's 31. Her most recent project was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in the 2025 Naked Gun reboot.
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Bestselling author
In 1985, Priscilla offered fans an unprecedented look inside her rocky relationship with Elvis in her autobiography Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll.
In 2023, acclaimed director Sofia Coppola adapted the bestselling book into a biopic titled Priscilla, with Presley serving as an executive producer.
The biopic isn't Priscilla's only foray into production. She's also produced two acclaimed investigative documentaries about animal trafficking and trophy hunting in Africa: Land of the Free: Animal Trafficking Redefined in 2020 and Land of the Free: Out of the Shadows in 2022.
Profitable perfumes
As if fashion icon, entrepreneur, actress, author and producer weren't enough strings to her bow, Priscilla also made a foray into the fragrance industry in 1990 with the release of her debut scent Moments (pictured). Her second perfume Experiences was released in 1993.
Indian Summer, her most popular perfume, hit shelves in 1995, swiftly followed by Roses & More in 1998, which garnered rave reviews.
Her final collection of scents, again called Indian Summer, was released in 2000 and sold out almost instantly.
Lisa Marie Presley
Born on 1 February 1968, Lisa Marie Presley was the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She died from a double heart attack on 12 January 2023 at just 54 years old.
As you’ll soon discover, Lisa Marie had far more in common with her late father than just a striking physical resemblance, and there are a few tragic parallels in their lives.
According to reports, Lisa Marie was millions of dollars in debt at the time of her death. So let's delve into how she made her fortune, how she lost it, and what happened to her estate.
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Music moves
Following in her famous father’s footsteps, Lisa Marie released her debut album To Whom It May Concern in 2003. This was followed by Now What in 2005. While both albums performed well in the charts, her third album Storm & Grace wasn't released until 2012.
Lisa Marie collaborated with some of music’s biggest names, including the likes of Kylie Minogue and Coldplay.
She also appeared in Michael Jackson's You Are Not Alone music video in 1995, a year after the couple controversially married.
Trust fund kid
Despite a moderately successful music career, most of Lisa Marie’s former fortune came from a trust fund set up by her late father, which saw her inherit the majority of the Elvis Presley estate and Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) when she turned 25, the estate her mother Priscilla had worked hard to turn around.
Rather than inherit the money directly, Lisa Marie opted to set up a revocable living trust and appointed a man named Barry Siegel to oversee it. In 2005, Siegel decided to sell 85% of EPE in a deal that pocketed Lisa Marie just $40 million after taxes. That’s around $68 million (£51m) today.
From riches to relative rags
Shockingly, most of the money from the Elvis estate had disappeared by 2015. Lisa Marie had just $14,000 (£10k) left in her trust and was saddled with $500,000 (£370k) in credit card debt.
She fired Siegel in 2015 and filed a lawsuit against him two years later, claiming he'd squandered $100 million (£75m) of her fortune. Siegel countered that Lisa Marie's excessive spending had put the estate in debt.
This has haunting similarities with the situation her father found himself in decades earlier. Elvis lost the bulk of his fortune due to wild spending sprees and the mishandling of his money by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, as depicted in Baz Luhrmann's movie Elvis.
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Graceland exhibit
Though Lisa Marie's stake in EPE was sold in 2005, she still curated a Graceland exhibit titled Elvis... Through His Daughter’s Eyes in 2012, which gave visitors a glimpse into life with her father.
The display included rare family photographs, home movies and memorabilia from Lisa Marie’s childhood. Also on display were what Lisa Marie described as her father's "most amazing clothes ever".
Costly divorce
Lisa Marie was married and divorced four times throughout her life. She married her first husband Danny Keough, with whom she had two children, in 1988. The couple split in 1994, and the King of Rock and Roll's daughter married the King of Pop later that very same year. Her union with Michael Jackson lasted just two years.
Her love life hit the headlines again when she tied the knot with actor (and Elvis Presley superfan) Nicolas Cage in 2002. The couple filed for divorce just three months later. Finally, she wed music producer Michael Lockwood in 2006. The pair welcomed twin daughters in 2008 and split eight years later.
Lisa Marie finalised her long and costly divorce from musician Michael Lockwood (pictured) in 2021. The former couple, who shared twin daughters Harper and Finley, separated in 2016 and were locked in a bitter custody feud for years. But shortly before Lisa Marie's death, the couple reportedly agreed to share custody of the girls, with Lisa Marie paying her ex $6,000 (£4.5k) per month in child support.
Rehab costs
Lisa Marie was reportedly paying a staggering $400,000 (£300k) a month to detox from alcohol, painkillers and antidepressants following her 2016 split from Lockwood. The troubled star hit rock bottom in 2016, with Lockwood telling the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services that she was "paranoid and hallucinatory" and would take up to 80 opiate pills per day.
However, an anonymous source told Radar that Lisa Marie "finally realised that she was killing herself and decided that she didn’t want to end up like her dad". In a bid to get sober, Lisa Marie reportedly hired a private detox team and checked into the Church of Scientology as a rehab facility.
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Blockbuster book deal
In 2019, Lisa Marie signed a book deal with Gallery Books reportedly worth somewhere between $3 million (£2.2m) and $4 million (£3m), with the tell-all autobiography set to reveal intimate details about her marriage to Michael Jackson. Sadly, she never finished it.
From Here to the Great Unknown was published posthumously in 2024, having been completed by her daughter Riley. It became a huge bestseller, generating additional publishing income for the Presley estate.
Lisa Marie's estate
Though Lisa Marie was in debt when she died, she reportedly took out three life insurance policies shortly before her death, making her estate "flush with cash", according to the 2023 documentary TMZ Investigates: Lisa Marie Presley: Unending Tragedy.
Lisa Marie’s three daughters, Riley, Harper and Finley, reportedly split her estate between them. It was also confirmed that Graceland – the infamous Memphis home of Elvis that Lisa Marie inherited when her father died – would also go to her children via a trust.
However, Priscilla contested a key part of her late daughter’s will...
Estate battle
In January 2023, Priscilla legally challenged a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie’s will. Priscilla and Lisa Marie’s former business manager Barry Siegel were initially named co-trustees of the late star’s estate but were replaced by Lisa’s children, Riley and Benjamin Keough, in 2016. As Benjamin died in 2020, Riley (pictured here with Lisa Marie and Priscilla) became the sole trustee of the estate.
Priscilla called into question the "authenticity and validity" of Lisa Marie’s signature on the 2016 amendment. Additionally, the change was allegedly not witnessed, and Priscilla claimed she was never notified that she was no longer the trustee, which she argued made it an "invalid modification".
However, the dispute has now been "resolved", according to Priscilla. It's been revealed that Riley paid her grandmother a $1 million (£747k) settlement to become the sole trustee of her mother's estate. The agreement also involves paying Priscilla $100,000 (£75k) annually as a "special adviser".
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Graceland scam
In 2024, a company called Naussany Investments claimed that before her death, Lisa Marie took out a $3.8 million (£2.8m) loan using Graceland as collateral, but failed to pay it back. It was a sophisticated scam, with the woman behind the scheme, Lisa Jeanine Findley, adopting several fake aliases and forged documents in an attempt to force the sale of Graceland.
Riley Keough, freshly installed as the sole trustee of the estate, successfully obtained an injunction preventing the sale before the scale of the fraud was uncovered.
Riley Keough
Born on 29 May 1989, Riley Keough is the first child of Lisa Marie Presley and musician Danny Keough.
Her estimated net worth is $20 million (£15m), though this figure is likely much higher now she has been named as the sole trustee of the Elvis Presley estate. So how does the oldest grandchild of Elvis make her money?
Model moves
Evidently blessed with the Presley clan's good looks, Riley Keough began modelling at 15 years old, appearing in a runway show for Dolce & Gabbana in Italy.
Over the years, she’s posed for high-end fashion houses like Dior and Chanel, and graced the magazine covers of international editions of Vogue, Elle, and Bustle.
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Acting ambitions
While music might have seemed the obvious career for Keough, she knew from a young age that she wanted to be an actress. In a 2021 interview with The New York Times, she explained: "I always wanted to be in film. I knew that. I grew up in a family of musicians, so it was also something that I wasn't around a lot. Film was everything, and I was very fascinated with people and human behavior."
Keough made her silver screen debut in the 2010 biopic The Runaways. Her career highlights include the action-packed blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road and the star-studded 2020 crime thriller The Devil All the Time, which also featured Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Sebastian Stan. She's continued building a respected acting career, while producing and directing credits have further bolstered her fortune.
Singing sensation
Despite her preference for acting, Keough has still inherited the Presley singing gene, and has even recorded backing vocals for pop star Lady Gaga. In 2021, she told the Just for Variety podcast: "My voice isn’t like Elvis. But I’ll tell you what, I just realized recently that I do have kind of a country voice."
Fans got the chance to hear Keough's vocal talents when she played troubled singer-songwriter Daisy Jones in the TV series Daisy Jones & the Six, based on the bestselling book by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Within hours of its release on 3 March 2023, the series had hit the number-one spot on Amazon Prime Video’s Top 10 list in the US. Meanwhile, the show's accompanying album Aurora reached number one on the iTunes chart in America.
Directing debut
In 2022, Keough stepped behind the camera to co-direct indie movie War Pony with her friend Gina Gammell (pictured). The coming-of-age drama follows the stories of two young Oglala Lakota boys growing up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
The acclaimed movie scored awards at the prestigious Cannes, Motovun and Munich film festivals. Not bad for a first-time movie director.
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Benjamin Keough
Born on 21 October 1992, Benjamin Keough was the son of Lisa Marie Presley (both pictured here) and Danny Keough, and the only grandson of Elvis Presley.
Tragically, he took his own life in July 2020 after a battle with depression. He was just 27 years old.
Promising record deal
With his piercing eyes and jet-black hair, Benjamin, who was reportedly worth around $1 million (£747k) at the time of his death, bore an uncanny physical resemblance to Elvis.
Benjamin shared his grandfather's passion for music, too. In 2009, it looked as if the budding star was set to follow in Elvis’ footsteps when he signed a $5 million recording deal with Universal.
But while Benjamin spent time in the studio and performed at a music festival in 2011, he never actually released any albums or music.
Pressure of the Presley name
The troubled star battled depression and addiction throughout his life, and it appears that being so similar to his grandfather might have been more of a curse than a blessing.
His close friend Brandon Howard told People that the pressure to live up to the Presley name "absolutely" contributed to Benjamin's struggles. Speaking shortly after Keough died, Howard explained: "That kind of pressure is definitely a part of what happened... It’s almost like you’re pressured into having to be a musician, having to be an actor."
Benjamin's mother Lisa Marie has also spoken about this pressure, describing the Presley name as "a hindrance": "Yeah, it helped me get a foot in the door [of the music industry]. But you have to hold your own. And again, it's a hindrance, because a lot of attention and pressure is on me."
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Harper and Finley Lockwood
Finally, on to Lisa Marie's youngest daughters Harper and Finley, who she shares with ex-husband Michael Lockwood.
The twins, who were born in October 2008, are largely kept out of the spotlight, and little is known about their lives.
However, the teens did make a rare public appearance (pictured) at the Elvis premiere, along with the rest of their famous clan in 2022.
The Elvis Presley estate today
Although there is no public official valuation, the Elvis Presley estate is estimated to be worth up to $500 million (£374m) today. Riley Keough and her sisters own Graceland itself, while Elvis Presley Enterprises, 85% owned by Authentic Brands Group, operates the property and manages licensing and merchandising. The Presley family retains a 15% stake in EPE.
What is certain is that the estate continues to generate substantial revenue from multiple businesses, including music royalties, merchandising, licensing, Elvis Week, Graceland admissions, and various brand partnerships.
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