Person

Required fields

idgivenNameroles

Fields

Field	Type	Description
accessibilityNeeds	object	Accessibility requirements for communicating with and providing services to this person
additionalName	string	Middle name(s) or additional given names. Multiple middle names should be space-separated
clanOrLineage	string	Clan, tribe, lineage, or gotra affiliation. In some legal systems (Hindu, customary African), this determines inheritance rights and succession order Used exclusively in jurisdictions where customary succession law determines inheritance rights based on clan membership (e.g. South Africa Customary Marriages Act 1998, Nigerian Igbo/Yoruba customary law, Kenyan Law of Succession Act s.32-33). Also covers Indian gotra under Hindu Succession Act 1956. Not collected in jurisdictions where clan affiliation has no legal relevance to succession.
comments	array[object]	Discussion comments on this entity
contact	object	Contact details for this person. All fields are optional — some parties may have no known contact information
dateOfBirth	string	The person's date of birth in ISO 8601 format. Used to determine age-dependent inheritance rights and guardianship requirements
dateOfDeath	string	The person's date of death in ISO 8601 format, if deceased. Relevant for determining predecease rules, commorientes, and survivorship
domicile	Jurisdiction	The person's legal domicile. Domicile — not nationality or residence — determines which succession law governs moveable property Domicile (not residence/nationality) determines succession law for moveables in conflict-of-laws. A British citizen domiciled in France has moveables governed by French forced heirship.
familyName	string	The person's family name (surname). Some cultures do not use family names — Tamil, Icelandic patronymic, and mononymous naming conventions are all valid without this field Optional — Tamil naming uses a single name. Systems must handle absent familyName.
fieldProvenance	array[Field provenance]	Per-field provenance records — how each field's value was obtained
gender	enum	The person's gender. Optional, but required where inheritance rules are gender-dependent (e.g. Islamic faraid, Hindu succession) Optional but needed for gender-dependent inheritance (Islamic faraid, Hindu succession pre-2005). Halachic/Islamic gender categories available via x-inherit-* extensions. male: legally or self-identified male. female: legally or self-identified female. non_binary: person does not identify as exclusively male or female. other: gender identity not covered by other values. prefer_not_to_say: person has declined to state. unknown: gender has not been recorded.
givenName	string	The person's given (first) name. For cultures where given name follows family name (e.g. Japanese, Chinese), this is still the given name — display ordering is a presentation concern
id	string	Unique identifier for this person within the INHERIT document. Must be referenced consistently across all entities https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4122
identifiers	array[Identifier]	External identifiers for this person — passport numbers, national ID, tax reference numbers, etc. Used for probate applications and cross-border identification
identity	object	Canonical identity for cross-document person matching. The fingerprint is deterministic: same inputs always produce the same key inherit-ici-v1 algorithm: (1) Require familyName, givenName, dateOfBirth, countryOfBirth — null if any missing. (2) NFC normalise. (3) ASCII-fold diacritics. (4) Lowercase. (5) Strip Unicode categories Z (whitespace), P (punctuation), S (symbols). (6) First given name only. (7) Concatenate: familyname\|givenname\|YYYY-MM-DD\|cc
jurisdictionRoles	array[object]	Extension-specific roles that the core roles enum cannot cover — e.g. faraid_heir, karta, okpara
language	string	BCP 47 language tag for the person's preferred language. Used for correspondence and document generation https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp47
legalPersonalities	array[object]	Legal personalities this person holds across different legal systems. A single person may have distinct legal identities under statutory, customary, and religious law simultaneously A person can have different legal identities across systems. Under statutory law: property owner. Under customary law: okpara (first son) with custodial authority. Under religious law: a Kohen.
notes	string	Free-text notes about this person. Use for anything not captured by structured fields — health conditions, access requirements, or context for professionals
phoneticReading	object	Phonetic reading of the person's name. Essential for CJK names to ensure correct pronunciation by non-native speakers and systems Required for CJK names. Japanese: furigana/romaji. Chinese: pinyin. Korean: romanisation. Ensures names can be read by non-native systems.
posthumousAiConsent	object	The person's wishes regarding posthumous AI recreation of their likeness or identity. Typically set on the testator and possibly their spouse Implementations should typically only set this on the testator and possibly their spouse — not all people in the document.
preferredChannel	enum	This person's preferred communication channel. Helps executors and professionals contact the right people in the right way email: electronic mail. phone: telephone call. post: physical mail. in_person: face-to-face meeting. video_call: video conferencing (Zoom, Teams, etc.). messaging: text message, WhatsApp, or similar.
preferredName	string	Name the person prefers to be called. May differ from legal name — use this for correspondence and display where appropriate
provenance	Provenance	Consolidated provenance metadata — how this entity was created, by whom, and whether a human has verified it
ritualName	object	The person's name within a religious naming tradition. Required for religious court filings, halachic documents, and Shariah proceedings Religiously significant name used in succession documents where religious courts have jurisdiction. Hebrew name (e.g. 'Dovid ben Avraham') is required for Jewish wills (shtar tzava'ah) and ketubah obligations adjudicated by a beth din. Arabic nasab (e.g. 'Ahmed ibn Muhammad') is required for Islamic wills (wasiyya) and Shariah court filings. Hindu gotra name is relevant for Hindu Succession Act proceedings. These are legal identifiers within their respective court systems, not cultural labels.
roles	array	The roles this person plays in the estate. A person may hold multiple roles simultaneously (e.g. beneficiary and executor) testator: the person whose estate this is. beneficiary: someone who receives a gift or share. executor: appointed to administer the estate. guardian: appointed to care for minor children. trustee: manages trust assets. witness: attested the will signing. attorney: holds power of attorney. proxy: authorised to act on behalf of a party. protector: oversees a trust. enforcer: enforces trust terms (common in Islamic trusts and Cayman STAR trusts). Core roles define the person's function in the estate. Extension-specific roles (bekhor, karta, okpara, mutawalli) should be added via x-inherit-* blocks alongside core roles. The array is intentionally extensible — a person can be both 'executor' (core) and 'karta' (x-inherit-hindu-succession). Extensions should NOT attempt to add values to this enum.
sameAs	array[string]	URIs identifying this entity elsewhere (schema.org sameAs). e.g. Wikidata, LinkedIn, DBpedia https://schema.org/sameAs
sharedWithCompanion	boolean	Whether this person record is shared with the companion estate. When true, changes sync between linked estates Shared people (e.g. children, mutual contacts) appear in both companion estates. On decoupling, each estate gets an independent copy. See docs/companion-estates.md.
taxResidency	array[object]	Tax residency declarations for one or more jurisdictions. A person may be simultaneously tax-resident in multiple countries, triggering reporting obligations under FATCA, CRS, and bilateral treaties Tax residency in one or more jurisdictions. Handles FATCA (US), CRS, JP/US estate tax treaty, expat tax. A person may be tax-resident in multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.
titles	array[object]	Formal titles held by this person. Multiple titles are common — a person may hold academic, professional, and traditional titles simultaneously Chieftaincy titles (Nigerian), honorifics (Japanese), caste/clan titles (Indian), religious titles, academic degrees.

male

female

non_binary

other

prefer_not_to_say

unknown

Optional but needed for gender-dependent inheritance (Islamic faraid, Hindu succession pre-2005). Halachic/Islamic gender categories available via x-inherit-* extensions. male: legally or self-identified male. female: legally or self-identified female. non_binary: person does not identify as exclusively male or female. other: gender identity not covered by other values. prefer_not_to_say: person has declined to state. unknown: gender has not been recorded.

phone

post

in_person

video_call

messaging

email: electronic mail. phone: telephone call. post: physical mail. in_person: face-to-face meeting. video_call: video conferencing (Zoom, Teams, etc.). messaging: text message, WhatsApp, or similar.