Nick Reiner is renewing his push for a portion of his family’s trust fund, arguing in a new court filing that a $558,000 distribution became legally his the moment he turned 30, regardless of the murder charges he faces in his parents’ deaths.
In a declaration filed Friday, Reiner states he never consented to let a trustee withhold, defer or retain the distribution, and says a prior trustee never told him the money was already owed to him. Reiner, 32, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the December stabbing deaths of his parents, filmmaker Rob Reiner and producer Michele Singer Reiner, inside the couple’s Brentwood home. He has pleaded not guilty. A grand jury indictment returned last month added a special circumstance allegation that he killed them while lying in wait, a factor that could expose him to a death sentence if convicted.
Attorneys for the trust’s current trustee, Jodie Pais Montgomery, filed an objection arguing that Reiner’s claims mischaracterize ordinary features of trust administration and succession. The response invokes California’s slayer statute, which bars someone found responsible for a death from inheriting from the victim, and says the trustee owes fiduciary duties to Reiner’s siblings, Jake and Romy, whose shares could grow if Reiner is excluded. The filing argues that Reiner’s urgency traces directly back to his parents’ deaths and that no one yet knows how the criminal case will resolve, leaving the trustee bound by the same obligations any trustee would carry under that uncertainty.
Reiner’s attorney, Anita Wu, pushed back on the slayer-statute argument in a statement to the New York Times, saying the law requires a formal determination rather than an accusation and that her client remains presumed innocent of any wrongdoing.
Reiner was previously represented by Alan Jackson, a defense attorney whose past clients include Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, before Jackson withdrew from the case earlier this year. Reiner has said in prior filings that the change followed a funding shortfall.
The trust dispute returns to Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday. Reiner’s criminal case is set for a pretrial hearing Sept. 15, when a trial date is expected to be scheduled.
