Aransas County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Rockport, know what is in the estate and what it owes. Which Texas route fits, and whether an administration is needed at all, turns on whether there is a will, who the distributees are, what the assets are worth and whether there are unpaid debts. Those routes are set by state statute and are identical in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Settling the question first matters more than usual in Aransas County, because two courts share original probate jurisdiction, the County Clerk's counter moves to a new building on August 20, 2026, and the county publishes little about local practice, so each trip to the counter or the phone costs real time.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Aransas County or out-of-county real property, along with every debt, before you apply. How each asset is titled decides whether it passes through the estate at all: survivorship accounts, accounts with a named beneficiary and land covered by a recorded transfer on death deed pass outside the estate and never reach either court. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for exactly this step, so that the application filed with the Aransas County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

Aransas County has one probate filing counter, the Aransas County Clerk's office in Rockport, and it serves the whole county. Until August 20, 2026 that counter is at 2718 Hwy 35 N, in the temporary space the county has used while its new courthouse was built; from August 20, 2026 it is at the county's new courthouse at 308 N Live Oak St. The Aransas County Court at Law publishes the same 2718 Hwy 35 N address as its mailing and physical address, while the District Clerk is in a separate building at 2840 Hwy 35 N, so if you are hand-delivering anything, confirm the address for that week rather than relying on an older listing.

Venue is straightforward for a Rockport-area resident: you file in the county where the decedent lived, if the decedent had a domicile or fixed place of residence in Texas (Estates Code § 33.001(a)(1)). If the person lived in Aransas County, the case belongs here even if they died in a hospital in Corpus Christi or elsewhere. For a decedent with no Texas domicile or fixed residence, venue depends on where the death happened and where the estate or the nearest of kin are (§ 33.001(a)(2)).

Which court hears the case is the fact a generic page gets wrong. Government Code § 25.0061 provides that "Aransas County has one statutory county court, the County Court at Law of Aransas County", and a statutory county court has, concurrent with the county court, the probate jurisdiction provided by general law for county courts (§ 25.0003(d)). Because the county has no statutory probate court, the Estates Code makes the two courts equals for probate: in a county with no statutory probate court but with a county court at law exercising original probate jurisdiction, that court and the county court have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (§ 32.002(b)). So the county court at law does not displace the County Judge, and neither court is "the probate court" of Aransas County. The county's own indications of practice both point the same way: the court at law's own page states that its jurisdiction includes probate and guardianship matters, and the Office of Court Administration's court summary for the Aransas County Court at Law, dated May 23, 2025, lists probate among the matters in that court's current caseload. Ask the County Clerk which court your case will be assigned to before you draft the caption.

Either way, the filing goes to the same office. The Aransas County Clerk is the clerk of the constitutional county court under the Texas Constitution (article V, § 20), and the county's own statute puts probate on the county clerk's side of the county court at law's split clerkship: "The district clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law in felony cases, in family law cases and proceedings, and in civil cases in which the matter in controversy exceeds $325,000. The county clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law in all other cases" (Government Code § 25.0062(b), as amended effective December 4, 2025). Probate is in "all other cases", so estates, wills and guardianships are filed with the County Clerk, not with the District Clerk.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, Aransas County has a path that constitutional-county-court counties do not: the case can move to the county court at law without leaving the county's own courts. Under Estates Code § 32.004(a), in a county with no statutory probate court but with a county court at law exercising original probate jurisdiction, when a matter in a probate proceeding is contested the judge of the county court may, on the judge's own motion, or shall, on the motion of any party to the proceeding, transfer the contested matter to the county court at law, and the judge may also transfer the entire proceeding there. The county court at law then hears what was transferred as if it had been originally filed in that court, and if only the contested matter was transferred, the matter returns to the county court once it is resolved (§ 32.004(b)). Because Aransas County has a county court at law exercising probate jurisdiction, the assignment and district-court transfer mechanism that applies in counties without one (§ 32.003) is not the route here.

Two courts, one counter, and a caption question worth a phone call. Aransas County is one of the roughly eighty Texas counties where a county court at law and the constitutional county court hold concurrent original probate jurisdiction (Estates Code § 32.002(b); Government Code §§ 25.0061 and 25.0003(d)). The statutory name of the county court at law is "the County Court at Law of Aransas County"; the county brands it the Aransas County Court at Law. Neither court is a statutory probate court, and neither should be captioned as one. The court at law's own page lists probate and guardianship among its matters, and the Office of Court Administration's summary for the court, dated May 23, 2025, lists probate in its current caseload, but the county publishes no local rule allocating estates between the two, so ask the County Clerk which court to style your application in.

The clerkship of the county court at law is split by statute, and probate falls on the county clerk's side. Government Code § 25.0062(b) provides: "The district clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law in felony cases, in family law cases and proceedings, and in civil cases in which the matter in controversy exceeds $325,000. The county clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law in all other cases." A decedent's estate is in "all other cases", so the Aransas County Clerk takes the filing even when the county court at law hears the case. The District Clerk, in the building at 2840 Hwy 35 N, is the wrong office for an estate.

The county is moving, and that changes where paper goes. The County Clerk's counter is at 2718 Hwy 35 N until August 20, 2026, when it opens at the county's new courthouse at 308 N Live Oak St in Rockport; the clerk's own notice says the office is closed to the public on August 18 and 19, 2026 while it moves, spends August 20 preparing to reopen for business, and keeps the same phone numbers and emails. The county website footer already gives 308 N Live Oak St as the county's address. This matters most for the one filing that cannot be made electronically: the wet-ink original will, which must reach the clerk within three business days of the electronically filed application (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)). Confirm the delivery address for the week you file, and do not use the 301 N Live Oak St address that older documents still carry, which is the address the county used before the new courthouse and is a different building.

Budget from the clerk's own court fee schedule, and check the date on anything else. The Aransas County Clerk links a court fee schedule, revised November 14, 2025, that prints the statutory $360 base to open a probate ($223 under Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1) plus $137 under § 133.151(a)(1), both effective January 1, 2024, the same figure in all 254 counties), the $120 adverse-action figure, the citation, letters and inventory items, and the sheriff's 2026 charges of $60.00 for citation by posting and $150.00 for personal service. An older civil fee document from 2016 still sits on the county's server, itemising fee statutes that Senate Bill 41 folded into the consolidated fees effective January 1, 2022, so ignore any Aransas fee list that predates the November 2025 schedule and ask the County Clerk for the probate total.

Expect the counter to work on its own terms. The County Clerk's own page publishes counter hours of 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., so the counter closes over the midday hour. The office states that it does not conduct record searches by telephone, so a records question means a visit, a written request or the clerk's online portal rather than a phone call, and it does not accept out-of-state personal checks, which matters for an out-of-state executor paying by mail. Since October 1, 2025 the clerk also requires a valid photo ID to file any document into the official public records, in person or by mail (the clerk cites Local Government Code § 191.010), and its list of covered filings expressly includes probate records recorded into the official public records, such as an heirship affidavit or a certified order affecting title. Call (361) 790-0122 the morning you plan to go, particularly during the move.

Uncontested Aransas County estates are handled without a lawyer often enough, and the County Clerk's counter is used to helping filers with procedure. Counsel earns its keep when a will or an appointment is likely to be challenged, when there is no will and the heirs have to be determined, when real property has to be sold or divided, when the estate is insolvent or a creditor is pressing, when a business or out-of-state property is involved, or when a guardianship has to run alongside the estate. Three local factors weigh in favor of counsel more than they would in a metro county. The county publishes no probate templates and no local probate rules, so every document is drafted from scratch. Two courts hold concurrent original probate jurisdiction (Estates Code § 32.002(b)), so the caption and the docket are worth getting right the first time. And the contested-matter route is specific: the judge of the county court may on the judge's own motion, and shall on the motion of any party, transfer a contested matter, and may transfer the entire proceeding, to the Aransas County Court at Law (§ 32.004), which then hears it as if it had been filed there. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Aransas County and the surrounding coast.

Find the accounts and assets. Sunset searches more than 2,300 financial institutions and public records to surface bank and credit union accounts, retirement plans, brokerage holdings, life insurance, Aransas County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Rockport.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, ready to file with the Aransas County Clerk for whichever of the county's two courts takes the case.

Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested and can be transferred to the Aransas County Court at Law, or the estate otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Aransas County.

Sunset is free for families. Revenue comes from bank partners that pay Sunset while estate funds sit in an FDIC-insured estate account ($3M coverage).