Nick Reiner seeks trust fund money for defence in parents' killings

Rob Reiner's boy snick Reiner is seeking volunteer(a) money from a corporate trust his parents constituted for him, saying he needs it to help in his defence against charges that he killed them.

A petition filed by the 32-year-old's civil lawyers in a Los Angeles County court on Monday says that trustees overseeing the funds have denied them to him without legal justification, and he needs and should get them now.

"Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this Trust litigation," the petition says. "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."

The director and Hollywood luminary Rob Reiner and his wife, photographer and producer Michele Singer Reiner, were stabbed to death in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14, 2025.

Nick Reiner was arrested hours later and has since pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.

Nick Reiner pleads not guilty to murder charges in parents' killing

Reiner retained high-profile private lawyer Alan Jackson to represent him, but less than a month later, Jackson left the case for reasons he said he couldn't share. The new filing reveals that Reiner's siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner, had initially agreed to pay Jackson's fees, but they reversed course.

In a declaration included with the petition, Jackson said that "my firm stands ready, willing, and able to resume representation of Mr. Reiner" if the funds become available.

The filing says that apart from the larger Reiner family trust, which is not at issue, Rob and Michele Reiner established smaller individual trusts for Nick Reiner and his siblings. It says they left "unambiguous instructions" in Nick Reiner's trust, established in 1993, that he was to receive half its money when he turned 30 and the rest at 35.

But, the filing says, Reiner never received the funds he was entitled to at 30 and that the trustee overseeing them since February — lawyer Paul R. Kanin — has given "a shifting series of excuses and justifications" to deny Reiner the money, including concerns about his competence that have no bearing on a payout that is mandatory.

Reiner says he should also get the money he was to receive at 35 immediately because his defence and his need for basic necessities in jail require it.

The petition says the trust has at least $1.5 million US in assets but that Kanin will not share the exact amount of its value.

Kanin did not immediately respond to an after-hours email seeking comment.

Proceedings in Reiner's murder case are moving slowly. He is scheduled to return to court for a pretrial hearing in September. He is eligible for the death penalty, but District Attorney Nathan Hochman has said his office has not yet decided whether to seek it.

Authorities have said nothing about possible motives, and leaks in the case have been virtually nonexistent on both sides. A court order has kept most details of the autopsy secret. Many of the most basic questions about the killing remain unanswered publicly.

On the day he left the case, Jackson, speaking outside court, declared adamantly that "pursuant to the laws of California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder."

In April, Jake Reiner gave his first detailed account of the experience of losing his parents and having his brother at the centre of it, calling it "a living nightmare" that is "too devastating to comprehend."

Rob Reiner was a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and '90s. His credits included This is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me and A Few Good Men. During the production of When Harry Met Sally, he met photographer Michele Singer. They wed soon after and were married for 36 years.

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