Inheritance

When it comes to inheritance there are few firm laws in Perrenland. Most of the time the details of distribution of goods and rights are left to the family in question, though they usually take into account any written instructions left by the deceased. What the law does require is that all immediate family members (spouses, children and other direct dependents) must be left something if they have not been publicly disowned. It is considered very poor form to leave nothing to a dependent, and families are expected to ignore any written instructions to the contrary. There is also an expectation that a small portion (traditionally one twentieth) of a Perrender's estate will be bequeathed to their clan head or the clan itself, as a ritual compensation for the loss of the person.

In the case where a person dies without leaving instructions for the distribution of the estate the traditional procedure is as follows.

This traditional arrangement is often used in written wills, using the phrase "I distribute my estate in the time-honoured way".

In addition to the distribution of the estate, a will typically specifies the deceased person's heir, their successor as the head of the family (or clan). It is not uncommon for the family heir to take on their predecessor's debts with agreement from those owed. When there is a position of importance and responsibility, such as the leadership of a clan, the identity of the heir is extremely important to the extended family. Traditionally, a person's heir is their next youngest sibling, and not their eldest child; if there is nobody left in the deceased person's generation, an older niece or nephew traditionally has precedence over the deceased's eldest child.

In other words, traditional family authority passes along a generation until it is exhausted, and then down to the start of the next generation, and so on. A wholly unsuitable heir may well be rejected by the family or clan if a clear majority refuses to be subordinate to them: Perrenese law supports this right of the larger group. Likewise, Perrenese law supports the transfer of family rights to the eldest child in the smaller families that are more common in the larger towns and cities.