Rob Reiner's son Nick claims he cannot access even $5 from family trust for jail commissary
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Nick Reiner has not withdrawn “even $5” from his trust fund as he continues his legal battle to access the money for basic jail commissary needs and his private legal defense.
Reiner is accused of killing his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, who were found dead in an apparent double homicide on December 14, 2025. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder with special circumstances.
Nick Reiner’s attorneys challenge trust fund denial
New court filings submitted Thursday and obtained by PEOPLE claimed that Reiner has not been able to access any money from the trust to cover his basic needs or private legal defense. “Nick still has not been able to access even $5 from his trust to buy basic subsistence items from the jail commissary,” his attorneys Anita P. Wu and Geoffrey A. Neri wrote in the filings.
The latest filings came in response to objections from trustee Jodi Pais Montgomery and former trustee Paul R. Kanin, who have opposed Reiner’s request to access the trust. Their previous court papers cited California’s “slayer statute,” which states that a person cannot inherit money or property from people they “feloniously and intentionally” kill.
The trust, established by Rob and Michele, is worth more than $1.5 million. Reiner’s attorneys have argued that the slayer statute does not apply because an accusation alone does not constitute a determination.
“The slayer statute requires a determination, not a mere accusation,” Wu previously said, per an August 14 report from The New York Times and added, “Nick is presumed innocent and has been convicted of nothing.”
Nick Reiner’s attorneys cite $558,000 trust distribution
Reiner’s attorneys also claimed that trustees failed to distribute money owed to him before his parents’ deaths. According to the latest filing, the trust included an “Age-30 Distribution” provision requiring Reiner to receive a portion of the funds when he turned 30 on September 14, 2023.
“Nick turned 30 on September 14, 2023. By the Successor Trustee’s own calculation, at least $558,000 became due and payable to him that day. His parents were alive. No one had accused him of anything,” his attorneys wrote.
The trustee’s denial previously stated that Reiner’s urgency “did not arise in a vacuum” and was connected to the deaths of his parents, whom he is accused of killing. A lawyer for the trustee argued that releasing the funds could be “irreversible” if Reiner is ultimately convicted, in which case the money would go to his siblings, Jake and Romy.
Reiner’s former attorney, Alan Jackson, said Monday that Reiner should be allowed to access the trust money to choose his criminal counsel. Speaking after a probate hearing on August 17, Jackson said Reiner was “very much entitled to his own money, his own funds.”
“He’s made a determination that he wants to be able to use his funds that are in his trust account to decide on his criminal counsel,” Jackson said and added, “And when he’s allowed to do that, he will then be able to defend himself in the way that the Constitution indicates that he should and can defend himself.”
