Nick Reiner blocked from accessing trust due to 'slayer statute'
Nick Reiner has been blocked from accessing his $1.5 million trust due to California's "slayer statute", which prevents individuals from inheriting money or property — including trusts — from a person they “feloniously and intentionally” kill.
Nick Reiner has been blocked from accessing his $1.5 million trust due to California's "slayer statute".
The 32 year old - who is currently behind bars in Los Angeles awaiting trial after being charged with the murder of his parents Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner - had filed a petition in June requesting the money, which was established in his name by his mom and dad shortly after his birth in 1993, but earlier this month, the previous and incoming fiduciaries set to oversee the trust, Paul Kanin and Jodi Pais Montgomery, opposed the request.
Court documents obtained by the New York Times newspaper showed they had cited the 'slayer statute', which prevents individuals from inheriting money or property — including trusts — from a person they “feloniously and intentionally” kill.
New trustee Jodi noted the criminal proceedings against Nick - who had requested the money to cover his legal fees and expenses in jail - will decide the fate of the trust fund and felt that "no distribution should be made until the Court resolves whether” the statute should affect his entitlement.
The documents state: “Nick’s sense of urgency is real, but it did not arise in a vacuum. 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.”
In a previous filing obtained by People magazine, Jodi's lawyer, Lauriann Wright, noted: “California has enacted no exception permitting a killer’s inheritance to be used for criminal-defense costs.”
The lawyer cited the statute in the same filing, detailing how the money in Nick's trust would be passed to Nick's siblings, Jake and Romy, because Jodi has a fiducary responsibility to them and while their brother only stands accused of their parents' murder, releasing the contents of the trust would be "irreversible".
In a response, Nick argued he hadn't given "consent" for the trust to be withheld after he turned 30.
His response to the court filing stated: “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.’
“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.”
His attorney, Anita P. Wu, insisted the trust is being held unfairly.
She said in a statement to the New York Times: “The slayer statute requires a determination, not a mere accusation. Nick is presumed innocent and has been convicted of nothing.”
Earlier this week, it emerged Nick faced new charges after special circumstances were added to the case.
He has been indicted on two counts of murder with the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder by means of lying in wait. He also faces another special allegation that he personally used a dangerous and deadly weapon in the form of a knife.
The new charges replace the original murder charges filed against Nick last year, and emerged after the indictment, which was returned by a grand jury last month, was unsealed on Wednesday (12.08.26).
A pre-trial hearing is scheduled to take place on 15 September.
