This week on Legally Us, Rachael Bennett, a certified family law specialist and senior attorney at Sullivan Law & Associates, breaks down Nick Reiner’s demand to access his $1.5 million trust fund as he awaits trial for the murders of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner.
The petition was filed in court on Monday, June 8, and states that Rob and Michele established a “smaller, separate trust for his individual benefit” prior to their deaths. Half of the money was set to be distributed “outright” when Nick turned 30, and he would receive the remainder upon turning 35.
Nick, 32, alleged he was never given the first installment and the petition claims that there have been “months of repeated inquiries” to the current trustee for the money.
“This request puts the trustee in a really difficult position, because really the situation is sitting at the intersection of trust law, and then we’ve got the California slayer rule that’s implicated now,” Bennett explains. “The slayer rule prevents someone from inheriting from, or just financially profiting, if they intentionally killed the person that they would have otherwise inherited from.”
Bennett adds, “Reiner is now arguing that the money was already lawfully his before the criminal charges arose, and so therefore, the slayer statute doesn’t prohibit him from inheriting it.”
According to the petition, the trustee cannot withhold funds because the trust is “irrevocable” and that there has been “no judicial declaration that Nick is incompetent.”
According to the petition, Nick is hoping to fund legal expenses and deposit money into his commissary account with the trust distribution.
“The stakes for Nick could not be higher,” the claims continue, alleging that Nick cannot pay for “basic necessities while incarcerated” or afford legal counsel.
“This case is really going to test the limits of that slayer rule. It seems intrinsically wrong that Nick Reiner, if he’s convicted of murder, could be given millions of dollars of his own parents’ money to defend himself after brutally murdering them,” Bennett tells Us. “That’s exactly the kind of, what I would call, perverse outcome that the slayer statutes are meant to prevent. … I would say here the fact that this was an already established trust, that’s Reiner’s loophole.”
Nick was arrested in December 2025 after his parents, Rob and Michele, were found dead in their Los Angeles home at ages 78 and 70, respectively. He has since denied fatally stabbing his parents.
Nick reportedly fired his psychiatrist and changed medications before his parents’ deaths. Nick has previously been candid about his past drug abuse and was reportedly diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“Another major issue here is that he has a documented history of schizophrenia, which will work both for and against him in these two simultaneous cases,” Bennett tells Us. “The law allows a trustee to withhold trust distributions if the recipient is legally incompetent, which is why Nick Reiner didn’t receive his trust distribution when he turned 30 in 2023 and the trustee is still arguing that it shouldn’t have to release the funds due to him being allegedly incapacitated, and this is really going to back Reiner into a corner. If his criminal defense is not guilty by reason of insanity, he’ll essentially be proving the trustee’s point in the trust case. In other words, if he claims he was so impaired that he couldn’t form any criminal intent, then the trustee might argue, ‘Well, then how can he be competent to control millions of dollars in trust assets?’”
His next court hearing is set for September 15, where prosecutors will present evidence to formally charge Nick for Rob and Michele’s murders.
