Accused killer Nick Reiner denied access to $1.5M trust fund due to ‘slayer statute’
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Nick Reiner has been blocked from the $1.5-million trust fund set up by his late parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, as he awaits trial for their grisly murders.
The previous and latest trustees — Paul Kanin and Jodi Pais Montgomery, respectively — shut down his demands to access money from it to cover legal expenses and commissary costs, citing California’s “slayer statute,” the New York Times reported.
The law prevents individuals from inheriting financial assets or property — including trusts — from a person or people they “feloniously and intentionally” killed.
The 32-year-old first filed a petition in June to access his share of the trust , which was established in his name after his birth in 1993.
Nick argued that he should have received half of the trust, which is reportedly in excess of $1.5 million, when he turned 30 in September 2023.
That trust payment would cover court costs and go to his prison commissary account so he can buy “basic necessities” like socks and toiletry products, according to the outlet.
Let the court decide
Montgomery has barred Nick from accessing money from the trust, stating that will ultimately be determined by how the criminal proceedings play out.
The incoming fiduciary, per the court papers obtained by the Times, said that “no distribution should be made until the Court resolves whether” the slayer statute should affect Nick’s entitlement, acknowledging that Nick’s “urgency is real, but it did not arise in a vacuum.”
The filing continued: “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. While Nick is presumed innocent of that accusation (and nothing in this Response and Objection should be read to suggest otherwise), no one, not this Court, nor the parties, knows how the criminal proceedings against Nick will ultimately resolve.”
Montgomery added that “no distribution (of funds) should be made until the Court resolves whether” the “Slayer Statute” applies in this instance since any such payout would be “irreversible.”
The trustee’s lawyers also point out that Nick’s needs are being met while he’s behind bars, including legal representation by a public defender and “his basic needs — housing, food, medical care — are being met by the State.”
Jake Reiner and Romy Reiner, Nick’s siblings, would become “contingent remainder beneficiaries” if he is denied access to the trust, the trustee noted.
Nick’s lawyer, Anita P. Wu, said in a statement to the Times : “The ‘Slayer Statute’ requires a determination, not a mere accusation. Nick is presumed innocent and has been convicted of nothing.”
Nick has pleaded not guilty to killing his parents. He is being held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles as he awaits trial.
What Nick Reiner said in filing
The accused killer acknowledged in his own filing that he did not allow the trustee to “withhold, defer or retain” his share of the trust when he turned 30.
He declared: “I have never understood anything I did (or did not do) to constitute giving the Trustee my consent to indefinitely withhold my Age-30 Distribution from me and retain it as property of the Trust even after I have asked for it, and it was not my intention to consent to that.”
Nick added: “As I have stated in my Petition and other documents, I would like for my money to be released and I ‘desire to receive’ it, with the accrued interest and income.”
On Aug. 12, Nick was formally indicted on first-degree murder charges for allegedly killing his parents on Dec. 14, 2025. Aside from the not guilty plea for the two murder charges, he also pleaded not guilty to the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder by means of lying in wait after the indictment was unsealed last week.
“This was a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement.
“The indictment unsealed today also adds a special circumstance allegation that the defendant committed the murders by means of lying in wait,” he continued. “We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case, it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice.”