In the wake of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner's tragic murders on Sunday, Dec. 14, the couple leaves behind an estate amassed over decades in Hollywood.


Rob, 78, and Michele, 70, are survived by their three children — Jake, 34, Nick, 32, and Romy, 28. Rob was also father to daughter Tracy, 61, from his first marriage to the late Penny Marshall.


Romy found her parents dead in their Brentwood, Los Angeles, home, sources told PEOPLE. Hours later, police arrested Nick in connection with the murders near the University of Southern California campus. Nick will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a special allegation that used a knife, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced at a press conference on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

California has what's called a slayer statute, which says if you kill someone that you're going to inherit from, you lose your inheritance and any right to serve as a fiduciary of their estate. So assuming he's convicted of this murder, he's out as beneficiary, along with any fiduciary appointments he may have," Weissbart explains.

A fiduciary appointment is "an executor, a trustee, [or] if they died without a will, which is probably unlikely, an administrator," he adds.

According to Weissbart, having both a will and a revocable trust is "most common" when estate planning in California, and oftentimes, since it's a community property state, "you'll see that a married couple has a joint revocable trust."

Nick's lawyer, Alan Jackson, confirmed to reporters that he is representing Nick, telling the press outside Los Angeles Superior Court that his client would not be making his first scheduled court appearance on Tuesday because he hadn't been medically cleared.


According to estate and trusts attorney Sean Weissbart, a partner at Blank Rome LLP who is not connected to the case, Nick will become ineligible to inherit from his parents' estate if he is ultimately convicted of the crime, per a particular state law.