Actually, if you read Tom Edisons Bio - it says that he owed Tesla money and refused to pay.
Tesla was mad at Edison and said he was so stupid, he was willing to do something wrong 100 times until he found the right answer, then to spend the money and pay someone once to show him how to do it the right way.
Tom was the one who was hard headed.
Tesla's family was the ones who benefited by his death.
They were able to settle his estate and collect what was owed to them and were well off with the money that they received after his death.

Tesla was just stuck on trying to transmit electricity.
If you think about all the money spent on telephone poles, rights of ways, copper wire etc - if he could have perfected it - it would have made him a millionaire.

I would chock it up the same as the Tucker Automobile.
It was so far ahead of everyone else - as far as technology went that no one understood it and the Big 3 refused to allow him to make it, or they would have had to comply with the standards he invented and it would have cost them money, both in sales and in market share.

It was easier to get rid of Tucker then to allow him to produce his automobile and show the world how wrong the rest of the world was.

Things like air cooled engines, seat belts, padded dash boards, recessed knobs..