Nick Reiner is demanding access to a portion of his $1.7 million trust fund so he can re-hire prominent defence attorney Alan Jackson as he battles charges that he fatally stabbed his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner.
In a petition filed in California probate court on Monday, Nick, 32, claims that the trust his parents set up when he was born contained “unambiguous instructions about when the funds” were to be released. The first half was supposed to be distributed to Nick on September 14, 2023, when he turned 30, while the remainder is due for distribution when he turns 35, the petition states.
“These distributions are mandatory and unconditional,” the petition states. “They were a commitment by Nick’s parents, in the most binding way the law of trusts allows, that these resources would belong to Nick, for his use and benefit.”
According to Nick and his new trust lawyer, Nick did not receive any money when he turned 30 and has been unable to secure the release of the funds since his arrest. He claims the outgoing trustee, Paul Kanin, who submitted his resignation last month, has offered “a shifting series of excuses and justifications” for withholding the money. Those include concerns about Nick’s competency and the possibility that the funds could be barred under California’s so-called “slayer statute,” which prohibits someone from financially benefiting from a killing.
According to the 136-page filing, Kanin has selected Jodi Montgomery, who once served as a court-appointed conservator for Britney Spears during the pop star’s conservatorship, to succeed him. Emails attached as exhibits show Montgomery’s lawyer contacted Nick’s public defender on May 22 seeking to arrange a meeting with Nick while he is in custody. The meeting would have included Montgomery and a consultant, the email says. Montgomery wanted “to discuss [Nick’s] case with him” and review “what limited trust funds he does have, knowing that some will need to be preserved to benefit him for the rest of his life.”
Nick’s public defender rejected the request, another email attachment shows. The public defender warned that any discussion of the criminal case in front of Montgomery and the consultant would not be protected by attorney-client privilege and could amount to a waiver of Nick’s rights, potentially allowing prosecutors to seek testimony about what he said. (Kanin and Montgomery did not immediately return requests for comment.)
The new petition argues that “conditioning” the release of money that should’ve already been paid to Nick when he turned 30 “exceeds any legitimate fiduciary diligence under the trust.” The petition further states Nick’s exact reasons for wanting the money: to rehire Jackson and “buy basic support items,” like socks and hygiene products at the jail commissary. It says refusing the requests amounts to “an abuse of the trustee’s discretion.” (Nick claims that despite a promise from the trustee to fund his commissary account, no money has been deposited into the account at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, where the balance is capped at $300.)
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Jackson, a former senior prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, was originally slated to represent Nick, but he abruptly stepped down in January, citing “circumstances beyond our control, but more importantly, circumstances beyond Nick’s control.”
According to a declaration Jackson submitted with the probate petition, a Reiner family representative contacted him on Dec. 15, 2025, a day after the alleged murders, saying Nick urgently needed a lawyer. Jackson said Nick’s older siblings “participated in communications concerning the representation and agreed verbally to act as third-party payors for Mr. Reiner’s defense.”
In his declaration, Jackson said he made it clear to the siblings that they “would have no authority to direct the representation, dictate litigation strategy, control the objectives of the representation, or receive privileged or confidential information absent Mr. Reiner’s informed consent.” Jackson said his firm got to work, meeting with Nick in custody, reviewing discovery, consulting with experts, investigating witnesses, and dealing with subpoenas. He did not divulge any possible defenses he was developing.
Jackson said a family representative subsequently informed him in late December “that none of the anticipated third-party funding would be provided.” He said that without the funding, “continued private representation by my firm was no longer feasible.” He then transferred the case to the public defender’s office, he said, though he remains willing to return if trust money at the center of the new court filing becomes available.
“My firm stands ready, willing, and able to resume representation of Mr. Reiner in the criminal matter,” Jackson said in the declaration, adding that his prior work on the case would allow him to act efficiently. He said he informed Nick’s trust counsel that his firm remained open to “reasonable alternatives” to the original fee agreement, including changes to the amount, timing or structure of payment, if that would help free up money for Nick to hire counsel and prepare “an effective defense.”
Nick’s trust lawyer, Anita P. Wu, attached an email to his new petition that again demanded the money she says her client was owed when he turned 30. She said any argument that Nick is too incompetent to receive the funds “is entirely irrelevant” because the trustee is authorised to make payments directly to a fiduciary, such as Jackson. And either way, she says, Nick is not “incompetent” within the meaning of the trust.
“The mandatory distribution at issue was owed to Nick more than two years ago and should have been paid,” Wu wrote in the email. “No use of the funds over the next two years could possibly be more critical than Nick’s legal fees and expenses.”
Nick is facing two counts of first-degree murder for the stabbing deaths of his parents. He pleaded not guilty in February and is due back in court on Sept. 15 to potentially set a date for his probable cause hearing, a proceeding in which prosecutors present evidence and call witnesses before a judge decides whether there is enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.
“Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths,” the petition reads. “But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this Trust litigation.”
From Rolling Stone US
