Elvis Presley, to this day, remains one of the most successful recording artists to ever live. Whether it's on stage performing in the unforgettable "'68 Comeback Special" or starring in movies like "Viva Las Vegas" or "Blue Hawaii" the star left an indelible mark on the world of entertainment that influenced just about every artist that has come since. And it's not surprising that his estate continues to make money. The Elvis Presley family still earns an estimated $39 million annually from the sale and royalties of all of the entertainment he produced over his too-short life. But where does that money go? Here's who inherited Elvis Presley's money after he died.
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00:00Did you know that Elvis Presley remains one of the highest-earning recording artists alive
00:04or dead, with his estate earning roughly $39 million a year? So seeing as the king has
00:09been gone since 1977, who's getting all that money? The answer may surprise you.
00:14Elvis Presley was one of the most successful and well-known musicians and performers of
00:18his generation. And with the release of director Baz Luhrmann's 2022 film Elvis, the king of
00:23rock and roll's music will be introduced to a whole new audience. For these reasons, Elvis
00:27was quite wealthy at the time he died, with a net worth of $5 million, or about $20 million
00:32in today's money, as Celebrity Net Worth explains. With no spouse, though, and only one child,
00:37where did all that money go?
00:39On August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley, at just 42 years old, was preparing for another tour
00:45when he was found unresponsive on his own bathroom floor by his then-girlfriend Ginger
00:49Alden. The rock icon was taken by ambulance to Baptist Memorial Hospital near his home,
00:54Graceland, in Tennessee, where he was pronounced dead at 3.30 p.m.
00:58It's terrible, but I just thank God that Elvis died here in Graceland instead of on the road
01:04just like any other rock and roll singer."
01:06Medical examiners determined that Presley's cause of death was cardiac arrest, but a toxicology
01:11report later concluded that he had high levels of codeine in his system, along with the sedative
01:15Quaalude. In the end, the recklessness with which Presley treated his personal health
01:19also extended to how he managed his money.
01:21In 1967, Presley married Priscilla Presley. It was a union that lasted for six years in
01:26which produced the rock icon's only child, Lisa Marie. According to his ex-wife, Elvis
01:31spent money with little regard for the future while he was alive. However, the money he
01:34made from his career as a recording artist, actor, and performer — he earned 14 Grammy
01:39nominations, winning four — was not just spent on himself. Elvis gave away much of
01:43the money he made at the height of his career, to friends and sometimes even strangers, as
01:46the Los Angeles Times noted in a 1989 article.
01:50There's good reason why Elvis felt financially secure during his lifetime. Whenever finances
01:54were tight, he could tour, which in the 1970s earned him as much as $130,000 per show. Furthermore,
02:00if the king was low on cash, he could always record another album, which promised another
02:04$250,000 in royalties. For a role in a film, Presley often earned as much as a million
02:09dollars.
02:10When Presley died, all that changed, though, and with its primary earner now gone, the
02:14Presley estate could no longer afford to spend lavishly. For this reason, Presley's home
02:18in Graceland was put on display to the paying public for the very first time.
02:21"...just walking on the same floors, touching the same walls that I was living and breathing."
02:29Lisa Marie Presley was only nine years old at the time of her father's death, and although
02:33she inherited her father's fortune, it first went into a trust controlled by Presley's
02:37own father, Vernon Presley. When Vernon died just two years later, Lisa Marie's mother,
02:41Priscilla Presley, took control, as was outlined in Vernon's will.
02:45Lisa Marie would take control of the trust when she turned 25. By that time, Priscilla
02:49had grown her daughter's inheritance to an estimated $100 million, and as recently as
02:542017, Lisa Marie received approximately $100,000 per month from the estate left to her by her
02:59father, according to E! News.
03:01However, by the time that Lisa Marie turned 50, the majority of her father's fortune was
03:05lost, due to years of financial mismanagement. Lisa Marie Presley blamed Barry Siegel, her
03:10business manager at that time, for making a string of bad business deals. In 2018, Lisa
03:15Marie sued Siegel, claiming he paid himself $701,000 per year and left her with only $14,000,
03:22as well as $500,000 in debt, as Forbes reports. In 2019, Siegel countersued for $800,000 in
03:29damages, as Yahoo! Entertainment explains. Legal issues aside, the Elvis Presley estate
03:33continues to make money, earning roughly $39 million per year, thus putting Elvis among
03:38the top recording artists in terms of earnings, alive or dead.