I do not claim to be a subject matter expert on this topic by any stretch. That said, for years now I have been completely floored by reports of money problems in regards to Stan Lee and his wife. I kind of followed this over the last 5+ years. It all stunk in my opinion. It was reported at some point in the last couple of years that his net worth was $50M and his business manager Keya Morgan had essentially cut him off from his family.

No sane person allows this. Only an insane person or a very elderly one gets manipulated this way. Again, not an expert on this topic but how does the godfather of Marvel end up with a reported $50M net worth? Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney for what, $2B? Somewhere in that range? I have always believed that Stan Lee was getting f***ed over raw by someone.

Keya Morgan arrested in Arizona and will be tried in CA for false imprisonment, grand theft, fraud, forgery, and elder abuse.

Again, I don't know all the details and Lee's wiki page doesn't do much nor does Marvel Studios in explaining corporate ownership and how all of that went down. Still think Stan Lee and his heirs got shafted by multiple people/entities who took advantage of an old man and the gold mine he created.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/stan-lees-former-business-partner-arrested-on-elder-abuse-charges/ar-AABUvpS?ocid=spartanntp

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/stan-lees-ex-business-manager-arrested-on-suspicion-of-elder-abuse

Hope they nail him to wall. NPR has been running a series on scams/cons involving the elderly this month. Some pretty fascinating research out there. Many of the people exhibit absolutely perfect judgment in all other facets of life, but then send thousands to their soulmate who they've never met over a period of several years. It's bizarre and horrifying.

Lucasfilm sold for $4B.

Give him the chair.

littlebitofhifi said:

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Correct, Lee was never an owner at any of the Marvel corporate iterations. He admitted later in life that he was terrible at business decisions and thus each time the company was sold, he took cash/liquid compensation for his work rather than an ownership stake.
Sad life lesson: either understand the economics of your work or surround yourself with advisors you can trust. Sadly, he did neither.

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Correct, Marvel went through several transitions and he didn't retain personal rights. That isn't to say he didn't make much money though.

A summary from Wikipedia:

He was Marvel's publisher for quite a while. He was making over a million dollars a year in the early '90s. He tried to form his own media company outside of Marvel and ended up going into bankruptcy after some of his business partners committed fraud. Stan Lee Media was bought up by someone else.

After that, he sued Marvel because they weren't paying him the little royalties he had negotiated for and eventually settled.

Then Stan Lee Media, no longer owned by Stan Lee, sued Stan Lee, saying their company actually owned the rights to certain characters and not Marvel.

now apparently there are allegations that his business manager was taking advantage of him at the end of his life.

Good Lord.

That's a shame that he didn't make more with all of the billions and billions the movies have made.

Stan Lee was a great promoter, but he wasn't a one man shop. Jack Kirby, John Romita, Steve Ditko, and an army of other writers and artists also created the Marvel universe without retaining any creative ownership or rights to future profits. I was just as happy about seeing Kirby's name roll up on the screen at the end of Endgame. Stan actually had a fairly controversial reputation among creative types who thought he took all the credit (and money) for other people's work. In fairness, most of them probably didn't understand the financial challenges that Marvel and print publishers in general were facing.

Social Media Influencer said:

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Quote:

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It was reported at some point in the last couple of years that his net worth was $50M

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That's more than I would have guessed. Marvel Comics had been through multiple bankruptcies and sales and he we was basically retired for years.

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well......shows what I know. I just figured his estate had to be worth more than that considering so much of what is the MCU is fruit of decades of his work. Probably was a really bad businessman. That said, from what I have read over the last several years I think it's pretty evident he was taken advantage of.

CDCN called this quite some time ago

Who?