Trustee Blocks Nick Reiner’s Request for Trust Money, Citing California ‘Slayer Statute’

Nick Reiner’s request to access more than $1.5 million in a trust established by his parents has been blocked by the trust’s incoming trustee, who says California law may prevent him from receiving the money if he is convicted of killing them.

Reiner, 32, is accused of murdering his parents, filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. He has pleaded not guilty and remains presumed innocent.

Reiner filed a petition in California court in June seeking access to money from the trust, which his parents created for him in 1993, the year he was born. He says the trust is worth more than $1.5 million and argues that he was entitled to receive half of it when he turned 30.

He wants the money to help pay his legal expenses and cover costs in jail, including commissary purchases for basic items such as socks and hygiene products.

But the trust’s previous and incoming fiduciaries, Paul Kanin and Jodi Pais Montgomery, have opposed his request. In court filings made this month, Montgomery cited California’s so-called “slayer statute,” which can prevent someone from inheriting property from a person they intentionally and feloniously killed.

Montgomery argues that no money should be distributed until the court determines whether the law applies to Reiner’s trust.

“Nick’s sense of urgency is real, but it did not arise in a vacuum,” the filing states. “It arises from the deaths of his parents, the very settlors of the Trust at issue, and Nick is presently accused of causing those deaths.”

The trustee’s attorney, Lauriann Wright, also argued that California law does not create an exception allowing money that could be subject to the slayer statute to be used to pay for a criminal defense.

If Reiner ultimately becomes ineligible to receive the trust assets, the money would instead go to his siblings, Jake and Romy, according to the court filings. Montgomery has a fiduciary duty to protect their interests, Wright argued, and releasing the money now could be irreversible.

Reiner disputes the trustee’s decision to withhold the distribution. In a response filed with the court, he said he never agreed to let the trustee indefinitely keep money that he believes he was entitled to receive when he turned 30.

“I did not give my consent to any Trustee of my Trust to withhold, defer, or retain my Age-30 Distribution indefinitely as ‘property of the Trust,’” Reiner wrote.

His attorney, Anita P. Wu, told The New York Times that the slayer statute requires an actual determination rather than simply an accusation.

“Nick is presumed innocent and has been convicted of nothing,” Wu said.

Reiner is currently being held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles. He was indicted by a Los Angeles grand jury in July on two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the December 2025 deaths of his parents.

The new indictment also includes an allegation of the special circumstance of lying in wait, as well as an allegation involving the use of a knife. Reiner previously pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.

The dispute over the trust is separate from the criminal case but could have significant financial consequences for Reiner and his siblings. For now, the trustee is asking the court to determine whether California’s slayer statute should prevent Reiner from receiving the trust distribution before any money is released.

Reiner is scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing on Sept. 15.