Nick Reiner, who is accused of killing his parents — acclaimed director Rob Reiner and film producer Michele Reiner — is asking a Los Angeles court to release funds from a trust his parents established for him, to pay for his legal defense.
A petition filed by Reiner’s civil attorneys in a Los Angeles County court on Monday says that trustees overseeing the funds have denied them to him without legal justification, and the 32-year-old defendant needs them. “Time is of the essence,” he told the trustee earlier this year.
In December 2025, Reiner was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents days after the beloved Hollywood power couple was found slain at their Brentwood home. Family friends told The Times that Rob and Nick got into an argument at Conan O’Brien’s holiday party just hours before the couple’s murder. Many party guests noticed Nick acting strangely, the friends said.
Nick Reiner, who has struggled with addiction for years, was living in a guesthouse on his parents’ property, a family friend said, and his mother had become increasingly concerned about his mental health in the weeks leading up to her death.
“Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths,” reads the petition. “But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this Trust litigation. Nick’s criminal defense attorneys will present those facts in the criminal case; this Petition neither requires nor invites this Court to weigh in on them. Like anyone accused of a crime, Nick is presumed innocent, and he is entitled to mount his defense with the resources that are lawfully his own.”
According to court documents obtained by The Times, Rob and Michele Reiner established individual trusts for Nick and his siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner, more than 30 years ago. The Nick Reiner Children’s Trust is a smaller trust created and funded independently of the far larger family trust that hold the assets of the Reiner estate.
“Those trusts, and Nick’s interest in them, are not at issue here,” the petition reads. “The terms of Nick’s Trust are not complicated, and they are not subject to reasonable dispute. Nick’s parents left unambiguous instructions about when the funds in the Trust were to be released to him. One-half of the Trust was required to be distributed to Nick outright when he turned 30. … They further instructed that when he turned 35, he would receive the rest of the funds in his Trust. These distributions are mandatory and unconditional.”
The court documents say that the trustee is authorized to make other discretionary distributions to Reiner for his support, maintenance, health and education until all funds are released to him on his 35th birthday — but, the documents state, when he turned 30 in 2023, he didn’t receive his payout.
Oversight of the trust has changed hands since December, according to the petition, and attorney Paul R. Kanin, who’s overseen it since February, has given “a shifting series of excuses and justifications” to deny Reiner the money, including concerns of competency. Kanin is resigning, effective June 11, and fiduciary Jodi Pais Montgomery will take over managing the trust.
“Nick is currently awaiting trial on double homicide charges,” reads the petition. “No use of his funds could be more important. … The stakes for Nick could not be higher.”
Reiner was initially represented by high-profile criminal defense attorney Alan Jackson, who also repped Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, but in January, Jackson dropped Reiner when his siblings didn’t pay for the pricey defense. Reiner, who is being held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, is currently represented by an attorney with the L.A. County public defender’s office.