Slayer rule

The ambushing charge is meant to show the killings were premeditated and make the troubled drug addict eligible for the death penalty.

The latest trustee for Nick's $1.5 million trust fund has blocked his request to be able to access the cash to cover his court fees and commissary costs, citing California's Slayer Statute.

The law prevents criminals from inheriting money or property, including trusts, from a person that they feloniously and intentionally kill.

But Nick, who has been in and out of drug rehab a shocking 18 times since he was just 14 years old, filed a petition to access the trust fund in June, claiming he has not been convicted of anything yet.

Yeah.

This so-called Slayer Rule then becomes a federal crime if you use a communications device to collect.

That's some crazy nitpicking right there.

That is.

The person currently maintaining Nick's trust fund is Jodi Montgomery, a licensed professional fiduciary who is acting as a successor trustee.

Montgomery has opposed Nick's request to access the money, citing California's Slayer Statute, which prevents someone who feloniously and intentionally kills someone from benefiting financially from that person's death.

Ooh, interesting, but it is in a trust.

So while they are benefiting from that person's d- it's, there's definitely a gap there, isn't there? Wu and her team argued that the Slayer Statute should not be applied solely on a mere accusation of murder.

Which, yeah, I mean, fair enough.

As of present, Nick Rainer has only been accused of murdering his parents, and in America, one is presumed innocent until guilty, proven guilty.

Whether or not California Slayer Statute can prevent the trustee from distributing these funds from the trust while the recipient criminal trial remains ongoing has become a central question in this ongoing probate dispute.

Also, she's the, she's the, uh, administrator of the trust, right? So she kinda gets to decide.

That's the spirit of the law.

Not every idiot understands the spirit of that rule, the Slayer statute.

This is money that was his.

right it had been his for not years decades decades he did not benefit in one way or the other from anybody's death so it should not be a matter and controversy matt it's driving me nuts that we're having to litigate to this degree we we reached out to the trustee or the and and then ultimately a lawyer on behalf of nick reached out to the trustees uh and said This is not a close legal call.

Nick Reiner has pleaded not guilty to murdering his parents, Hollywood director Rob Reiner and Michelle Singer Reiner, and he's trying to get access to the $1.6 million trust fund his parents set up for him so he can hire a private lawyer.

However, a professional fiduciary with oversight of the fund has opposed his request, citing a California law known as the Slayer Statute.

Joining me is Trusts and Estates litigator Robert Harper, a partner at Farrell Fritz.

So, Rob, tell us what's been happening with the Nick Reiner case.

And in the wake of their passing, he has sought to gain access to a trust fund that his parents created.

for his benefit, arguing that he should be allowed to access those funds in order to pay for his criminal defense counsel to defend him in prosecutions concerning his parents' deaths.

The trustee of the trust has denied Nick access to those funds on account of the fact that California has a slayer statute.

Now, I'm a New York lawyer, of course, and we don't have a slayer statute here in New York, but we do have a slayer rule.

We know this much, that there was a particular trust that was designed specifically for Nick when he reached a certain age he was supposed to get the money.

The trustee is fighting Nick based on something called the Slayer Statute.

And that means if you kill the people who were giving you the money, you're not entitled to collect it.

So he's fighting that in court, but that's $1.6 million.

But the trustee is saying, no, you can't have that money because you killed your parents.

California has what's called a slayer statute, and that means people cannot inherit or get money from people they have likely killed.

Notice the word likely.

The bar is lower.

He is charged with their murders.

So I was correct.

It is a legal doctrine known as the Slayer Statute or the Slayer Rule.

Slayer is capitalized.