Elvis Presley wasn't exactly known to be stingy with his money. As Forbes notes, "Estimates place his lifetime earnings anywhere from $100 million up to one billion dollars." While you'd think the King would have set up his family for a life of opulence after his passing, that wasn't the case.
According to the Los Angeles Times, his estate was worth $4.9 million, while "the cost of maintaining Graceland was about $480,000 a year — most of it going to taxes, insurance and 24-hour security for Elvis' gravesite." If that wasn't enough, most of the royalties from Elvis' songs went to RCA, not his estate. Bluntly put, without Elvis being alive to tour, make appearances, or star in movies, the family found themselves in trouble. Thankfully for the Presleys, the singer's ex-wife, Priscilla, stepped in, turning Graceland into a tourist attraction, and the property was worth over $75 million by 1989.
Per Forbes, in 1993, Priscilla's daughter, Lisa Marie, turned 25, at which point she became eligible to directly inherit the money, per Elvis' will. Money woes plagued the starlet, however, and within ten years, she claimed $100 million was gone. Instead, she had a mere $14,000 in cash and owed millions in back taxes and credit card debt, according to Forbes. Yet again, Priscilla came to the rescue, selling her own Los Angeles mansion to help her daughter with her crippling debt.
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