Nick Reiner is demanding access to his $1.5 million trust fund to help him fight the murder charges for his parents’ Rob and Michele Reiner’s deaths.
On Monday, the “Being Charlie” writer filed a petition, requesting the funds he claims he was supposed to be paid from his trust when he turned 30 in 2023.
The petition, obtained by People, claimed that Nick was supposed to receive half of the trust “outright when he turned 30” and the other half would be given to him when he turned 35.
Nick, who is charged with the murders of his parents, claimed in the petition that “months of repeated inquiries” to the current trustee have “offered a shifting series of excuses and justifications,” including “unsubstantiated ‘concerns’ about Nick’s so-called competence to ‘manage a trust.’”
Nick, now 32, and his legal team are requesting that the first half of the trust payment be released so he can cover his legal fees and place money into his commissary account to “buy basic support items while incarcerated (e.g., socks and personal hygiene items like soap) within the low spending limits imposed by the jail.”
“These distributions are non-discretionary,” the petition stated. “The trust does not authorize the Trustee to condition these distribution points on any subjective assessment by the Trustee as to Nick’s intended use of those funds.”
Because the trust is “irrevocable,” Nick — who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia — claimed in the petition that the trustee is not sanctioned to withhold funds from a beneficiary, even if they are deemed incompetent.
The docs state that the trustee can only “modify the manner of distribution to an incompetent beneficiary.”
The court docs claimed that “there is no judicial declaration that Nick is incompetent, nor has he been determined to lack capacity by the written statement of two licensed physicians.”
Due to Nick’s “present circumstances” of being incarcerated and facing murder charges, the petition alleged it is an “abuse of the Trustee’s discretion to refuse those requests” as no “use of his funds could be more important.”
The petition also stated that Nick’s first attorney, Alan Jackson, was retained to represent the former “Dopey” podcast co-host with payment negotiated by “Nick’s siblings on his behalf.”
However, in January, Jackson was “forced to withdraw because funds were not made available from this Trust or the Reiner family trusts.”
“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 read.
Page Six has reached out to Nick’s lawyer for comment but has not yet heard back.
Last December, Michele and Rob were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood, California, home. He was 78 and she was 70.
The film director and his wife’s death certificates stated that they died within “minutes” of receiving “multiple sharp force injuries” with a “knife, by another.”
Nick was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths. He is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
In February, Nick pleaded not guilty to the double killings.
If you or someone you care about is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
