Accused murderer fights for access to $1.6M family trust

Nick Reiner, the man accused of murdering his parents, is engaged in a legal battle to access a family trust worth approximately $1.6 million to pay for his defense and basic needs while he awaits trial. Reiner, 33, has been held without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility since December 2025 on two counts of murder with special circumstances in the deaths of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. According to court filings, Reiner's attorneys state he has not been able to access any funds from the trust, not even $5 for jail commissary items. The trust, established by his parents in 1993, names Reiner as its sole beneficiary. His lawyers argue that a distribution of at least $558,000 was due to him on his 30th birthday, September 14, 2023, under the trust's Age-30 Distribution provision. They contend this money became his before his parents' deaths and should not be withheld. Trustees Jodi Pais Montgomery and former trustee Paul Kanin have rejected Reiner's request, citing California's slayer statute. This law prohibits a person from inheriting property from someone they feloniously and intentionally kill.