Rob Reiner’s son Nick seeks $1.6m trust fund to pay legal bills
Rob Reiner’s son Nick is demanding access to his trust fund to cover his legal bills. He claims he should have access to the trust created for him as a baby.
Legal representatives for Reiner claim that a "substantial portion" of the trust consists of money left to him by his grandfather, actor and screenwriter Carl Reiner, who died in 2020 at age 98. Reiner, 33, has been behind bars at Twin Towers Correctional Facility for almost a year, after being accused of murdering his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
He has twice pleaded not guilty. Reiner was charged with first-degree murder on December 16, just two days after the murder of his parents. His trust fund is reportedly worth around $1.6million.
He’s demanding access in order to cover the costs of his ongoing legal battle. The trustee who is responsible for th fund cites California’s Slayer Statue as one of the reasons why he’s not able to access the fund. This can prevent somebody who unlawfully kills another person from being able to financially benefit from the death.
However, Reiner’s legal representatives have argued that the statute doesn’t apply to this case as the vast majority of the funds were left by his granddad, rather than his murdered parents.
According to documents obtained by the Daily Mail, his lawyers argue: "The Slayer Statute prevents a killer from receiving a benefit created by the killing. It takes away what a person receives because someone died; it does not divest a person of his pre-existing property.
"A substantial portion of the funds currently held in Reiner Trust did not even come from his parents – it was money that Reiner’s grandfather, Carl Reiner, left to Nick in his estate plan, with similar distributions to his other grandchildren.
"This includes at least $325,017.49, which was transferred into the Trust account at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank on December 24, 2024. The Successor Trustee’s counsel has informed Petitioner that, in addition to that sum, other distributions to Nick from his grandfather may have similarly been deposited into accounts held by this Trust.
"It is not clear how much of the money in the Trust came from his grandfather, or why that money was deposited into Nick’s Trust account, rather than to Nick individually. It is Petitioner’s understanding that the Successor Trustee is still looking into these matters."
The documents state that the Slayer Statute has "no application" to the money, as Reiner is "not accused of causing" the death of his grandfather. It adds that the money left to Reiner by his grandfather was "not money received by him from or through his parents" and was instead left from Carl’s "personal assets".
Reiner’s legal representatives have also argued that even if the funds were held properly by the trust, the Slayer Statute does not "supply a basis for withholding them". They add that Reiner can’t even buy simple things in prison. Reiner’s siblings are said to be united in preventing him from accessing his inheritance.
It comes after it emerged that Reiner would not face the death penalty on charges he fatally stabbed his parents after lying in wait at their home in Los Angeles late last year, prosecutors said Tuesday.
If convicted, the maximum sentence Reiner could get is life without the possibility of parole, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said at a news conference this month.
Before reaching its decision, Hochman said his office did a thorough review, including speaking to Rob and Michele’s families and evaluating mitigating factors in Reiner’s favour.
The death penalty had been on the table because of the lying-in-wait allegation, the fact that multiple people were killed, and the use of a knife, which is considered a dangerous weapon.
Reiner’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene, said prosecutors made the right decision.
Head of Investigations
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
