Updated

Updated · Los Angeles Times · Jun 9

Nick Reiner Seeks $1.5 Million Trust for Murder Defense as Trustees Withhold Mandatory Payouts

Updated

Updated · Los Angeles Times · Jun 9

Nick Reiner Seeks $1.5 Million Trust for Murder Defense as Trustees Withhold Mandatory Payouts

Q: Accused of murdering his parents, can a son legally use their fortune to fund his own defense?

Not automatically. In California, an accused son may try to access trust money before trial, but if a court finds he feloniously and intentionally killed his parents, the state’s Slayer Statute would bar him from benefiting from their estate or trust. That is the central issue in Nick Reiner’s petition. He argues his parents’ trust requires mandatory payouts at ages 30 and 35 and that the trustee has no discretion to withhold them. If the trust language truly makes those distributions unconditional, he may have a colorable claim to interim access unless and until a court blocks it. That is why he says he wants the money now: to rehire private counsel Alan Jackson. But California Probate Code section 250 is a major obstacle. It applies not just to wills, but also to trusts. A person who intentionally and feloniously kills the decedent is treated as having predeceased them, cutting off inheritance rights. Importantly, that determination does not always require a criminal conviction. A probate court can make its own finding under the lower civil standard of proof, preponderance of the evidence. So the answer is legally uncertain in the short term but likely no in the long term if the killing is proven. Until that happens, the fight turns on trust language, timing, and whether a probate judge freezes or releases funds. Even if Reiner remains indigent, he is still entitled to a public defender and, if mental condition is a major issue, state-funded psychiatric assistance.

3 articles · Updated · Los Angeles Times · Jun 9

$1.5 million in trust funds is at the center of Nick Reiner’s new Los Angeles petition, which asks a court to release money he says he needs to defend against charges he killed his parents.
Court filings say half the trust should have been distributed when Reiner turned 30 in 2023, with the rest due at 35, and argue trustees have blocked even discretionary support without legal basis.
The dispute has already affected his criminal case: after private lawyer Alan Jackson withdrew in January when siblings would not fund the defense, Reiner was left with a public defender.
Paul Kanin, the trustee accused of giving shifting reasons for withholding funds, is resigning effective June 11, with fiduciary Jodi Pais Montgomery set to take over as the murder case remains on hold until fall.