Kendall County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Boerne, know what is actually 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 the same in all 254 Texas counties; they are explained on the Texas state page. Getting the answer before your first filing matters here because Kendall County assigns each accepted case to the next available probate docket, hearings are in person on the 3rd floor of the courthouse, and the county's own instruction sheet requires you to bring the proposed proof of death, the proposed order, the proposed oath and a copy of the death certificate with you on the day of the hearing. A wrong route means starting over.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Kendall 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 the county 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 Kendall County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.

The Kendall County Courthouse at 201 E. San Antonio Avenue in Boerne is the single probate filing location for the whole county. There is no branch, satellite or annex counter for estates: the County Clerk takes filings in Suite #127 and probate hearings are held on the 3rd floor of the same building. The court serves every part of the county, including Boerne, Comfort, Bergheim, Kendalia and Sisterdale and the rural areas between them. Because attorneys file electronically through eFileTexas.gov and the clerk assigns the case to a docket after the filing is accepted, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires a trip to Boerne; the trip that matters is the hearing, which the county holds in person.

Venue is straightforward for a Hill Country 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 Kendall County, the case belongs in the Kendall County Court, even if they died in a hospital in San Antonio, New Braunfels or Kerrville. 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 most often gotten wrong on a small Texas county. Kendall County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Kendall County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. The county's own description of the office confirms it: the County Judge "serves in a judicial function, overseeing some criminal, civil, juvenile, probate, guardianship, and mental health cases." The only other trial courts seated in the county are the 451st and 498th District Courts, which do not open estates.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, the case does not stay with the County Judge by default. Under Estates Code § 32.003(a), in a county with no statutory probate court and no 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, either request the assignment of a statutory probate court judge to hear the contested matter (Government Code § 25.0022) or transfer the contested matter to the district court, which may then hear it as if originally filed there. Three details matter in practice. A party's motion for assignment of a statutory probate court judge beats a transfer: if it is filed before the county judge transfers the matter, the county judge shall grant it and may not transfer the case unless the motion is withdrawn (§ 32.003(b)). A party may file that motion before anything becomes contested, and it takes effect if the matter later does (§ 32.003(c)). And the county court keeps the rest of the case: if only the contested matter is assigned out or transferred, the county court continues to exercise jurisdiction over the management of the estate until the contested matter is finally disposed of (§ 32.003(g)), and the matter returns to the county court when it is resolved.

Everything must go in as a lead document. This is the Kendall rule that most often causes a rejected filing, and the county states it plainly: "All E-file documents must be submitted as lead documents. Our office does not accept attachments. The Application must be submitted as a lead document and a copy of the Will must be filed as a lead document in the same envelope to open a new Probate." A filer used to attaching the will to the application in eFileTexas.gov will have the envelope bounced. Upload the application and the copy of the will as two separate lead documents in one envelope, then deliver the wet-ink original will to the County Clerk within three business days (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)).

The case style is prescribed. Kendall County requires that "The style of the case must read 'In the County Court of Kendall County, Texas'." Not the Probate Court, not the County Court at Law: Kendall has neither, and a caption naming a court the county does not have is an avoidable reason for a rejection.

The clerk sets the hearing, and the docket starts at 10 a.m. Kendall County does not run a self-scheduling portal: "All probate cases will be assigned to the next available docket by the County Clerk's Office after the e-file has been accepted", and the county's Probate page states that "The probate docket begins at 10 am." Resets and rescheduling go through the County Clerk's office at 830-249-9343, ext. 237 or 239. The county publishes no filing-to-hearing interval, so ask the clerk what the next available date looks like rather than assuming one.

Proposed documents are carried in, not filed in advance, and that is unusual. Many Texas courts want the proposed order lodged before the hearing. Kendall says the opposite: "At this time the Judge does not require proposed documents to be filed. You must bring the proof-read proposed proof of death, proposed order, and proposed oath and a copy of the death certificate with you on the day of the hearing." The word proof-read is the county's own; arrive with clean, signature-ready documents. You can also get the paperwork moving early, because the county allows you to "request letters at least one day prior to the hearing", to be picked up at the time of the hearing.

Hearings are in person on the 3rd floor, and there is a dress code. The county's Probate page states that "Effective April 1, 2023 Probate Hearings are being held in person", and the instruction sheet places them on the 3rd floor of the Kendall County Courthouse at 201 E. San Antonio Avenue. The county publishes a courtroom dress code: no shorts, tank tops or shirts with vulgar language, and no hats, caps or other headwear. Nothing about telephone or video appearances is published, so plan on the trip to Boerne for the hearing itself.

One court, one counter, and the district courts only enter the picture on a contest. Kendall County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so there is no question of which court to choose: the Kendall County Court hears the estate (Estates Code § 32.002(a)) and the County Clerk in Suite #127 takes the filing. The 451st and 498th District Courts sit in the same county but do not open estates; a district court reaches a Kendall probate matter only if the County Judge transfers a contested matter to it under § 32.003(a)(2), and even then the county court keeps the management of the rest of the estate (§ 32.003(g)).

Plenty of uncontested Kendall County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the county's instruction sheet is written as though a filer might be doing it alone. Counsel earns its keep here 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. Two local factors weigh in favor of an attorney more than they would in a metro county. First, Kendall County publishes no probate forms at all, so every document is drafted from scratch to the county's own case-style and lead-document rules. Second, the contested-matter route matters: if a matter becomes contested, the County Judge may on the judge's own motion, and shall on the motion of any party, request the assignment of a statutory probate court judge or transfer the contested matter to the district court (Estates Code § 32.003(a)), and a motion for assignment filed before a transfer must be granted (§ 32.003(b)), which is a timing point that is easy to miss without counsel. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Kendall County and the surrounding Hill Country.

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, Kendall County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed in Boerne.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted to Kendall County's own requirements, including the case style the county prescribes and the separate lead documents its clerk requires in the eFileTexas.gov envelope, ready to file with the Kendall County Clerk.

Find a local probate attorney. When a matter is contested or otherwise calls for counsel, Sunset connects families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Kendall 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).