• 08
  • December
    2011

Elvis has more than a few fans here in Cape Coral, so recent news that a woman who has been derided as "crazy" is suing Elvis' estate might get a few Floridians riled up. To be sure, this is a strange story, but underneath it all, there is actually an estate planning lesson to be learned.

A woman named Susan Johansen, who is from Sweden, wrote a book not long ago called "I, Lisa Marie" in which she claimed that she is the legitimate daughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. Although her publisher later denounced her as delusional, Johansen stuck by her claim that after Elvis died in 1977, she was sent to that Nordic country to go into hiding and had to assume a new identity for her own safety. She said that the Lisa Marie Presley most people think of as Elvis' daughter is an impostor who took her place.

That sort of...unlikely story would be harmless if Johansen did not use it to assert her claim to a share of the vast fortune Presley left behind. Her most recent lawsuit against the family argues that the singer's estate owes her $130 million for the emotional distress it has caused her by claiming she is not Elvis' rightful heir.

So, what is the estate planning lesson in this story? It's this: if you leave behind an estate of any substance, people will come out of the woodwork wanting a piece of it for themselves. Of course, they won't all have claims as improbably as Johansen does, but look at it this way; every penny spent on defending your estate from frivolous claims is a penny you don't have for some more worthy purpose. This is why it is important that you have clear, unambiguous estate planning documents that outline your intentions with the utmost clarity. For that, you may want to seek out a lawyer with experience in estate planning and probate.

Source: The Guardian, "Elvis Presley's 'real daughter' sues his estate for $130m," Sean Michaels, Dec. 1, 2011