McLennan County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Waco, know what is actually in the estate and what it owes. Whether an administration is needed at all, and which Texas route fits, 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 this right before your first filing matters more here than in many counties, because McLennan hears probate on only one day a week, the County Judge's Wednesday docket, so a filing error or a missing document can cost a full week rather than a quick reschedule.

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

The McLennan County Clerk's Probate Section, at 215 N 5th Street, Room 201 in Waco, is where estates are filed. It is a different building from the McLennan County Courthouse at 501 Washington Avenue, where the County Judge's office and the three county courts at law sit and where probate hearings are actually held. The court serves the whole county, including Waco, Hewitt, Woodway, Robinson, Bellmead, Lorena, McGregor and the rural areas between them. Because attorneys must e-file through eFileTexas.gov, most of the paperwork in an uncontested estate never requires a trip to either building; the trip that matters is the hearing, and McLennan holds those only on Wednesdays.

Venue is straightforward for a Waco-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 McLennan County, the case belongs here, even if they died in a hospital in Temple, Hillsboro 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 most worth getting right in McLennan County, and it is not simply a matter of reading the statute. Government Code § 25.1571 gives McLennan three county courts at law, and § 25.1572(a)(2)(B) expressly lists probate proceedings among their jurisdiction, on top of the general concurrent grant every county court at law has under Estates Code § 32.002(b). But the county's own Probate FAQ answers the question directly: "The County Court of McLennan County is the Probate Court," and the Probate Court Services page describes its role as maintaining the County Judge's own Probate/Guardianship docket. So while the three county courts at law could hear a probate matter as a matter of law, the County Judge's court is where McLennan estates are actually heard, on Wednesdays, in the County Judge's own office.

If a matter in the proceeding becomes contested, McLennan follows the county-court-at-law route rather than the constitutional-county-court route. Under Estates Code § 32.004, 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 a county court at law, and the judge may transfer the entire proceeding to the county court at law as well. McLennan's own fee schedule prices this event directly: a "Competing Application for Probate, Administration or Guardianship" carries a $120.00 fee, matching the statewide adverse or contested probate action fee (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(2) and § 133.151(a)(2)).

The filing counter and the hearing location are in two different buildings. Estates are filed with the County Clerk's Probate Section at 215 N 5th Street, Room 201, but the hearing itself is held at the McLennan County Courthouse, 501 Washington Avenue, in the County Judge's own office. A filer who assumes one building handles both steps will end up at the wrong address for at least one of them.

The county's own words settle which court actually hears probate. McLennan has three statutory county courts at law with concurrent probate jurisdiction as a matter of law (Estates Code § 32.002(b); Government Code § 25.1572(a)(2)(B)), but the County Clerk's own FAQ answers the practical question directly: "The County Court of McLennan County is the Probate Court." The Probate Court Services department describes its job as maintaining the County Judge's own docket, and the three county courts at law's own forms library carries no probate category. Unless a matter becomes contested and is transferred under Estates Code § 32.004, do not expect a McLennan probate case to land in County Court at Law No. 2 or No. 3.

Hearings run one day a week. The county's Probate FAQ states hearings are held only on Wednesdays, with few exceptions, and in the County Judge's own office. No hearing time or filing-to-hearing interval is published, so build a Wednesday-only schedule into your planning and confirm the specific date with the Probate Court Services Coordinator.

Citation service pricing signals how McLennan actually serves papers. The fee schedule prices in-county citation service, including by certified mail, at $98.00, while an out-of-county citation or one served by a private process server is only $8.00 because the process server bills separately and must first be ordered by the court. Ask the Clerk which applies to your citation before assuming a total cost.

The district courts and the district clerk stay out of a McLennan County estate entirely. The District Clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law only in cases instituted in the district courts where the two share concurrent jurisdiction; the County Clerk is the clerk in all other matters, which includes probate (Government Code § 25.1572(e)). And unlike the many Texas counties whose constitutional county court must send a contested probate matter to a district court or an assigned statutory probate judge under Estates Code § 32.003, McLennan follows § 32.004: a contested matter is transferred to one of the county's own three county courts at law, not to a district court. The schedule's own $120.00 competing or adverse action fee prices that event as the exception, not the routine.

Plenty of uncontested McLennan County estates are handled without a lawyer, and the County Clerk's own fee schedule prices routes, like a small estate affidavit or an uncontested probate of a will, that a family can pursue on its own. 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 through a declaration of heirship, 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. One local factor weighs in favor of an attorney more than it would in some counties: McLennan hears its probate docket only on Wednesdays, in the County Judge's own office, so a filing that is not ready for that week's docket or arrives with the wrong paperwork can cost a full week rather than a same-day fix. If a matter becomes contested, it may be transferred to one of McLennan's three county courts at law (Estates Code § 32.004), which is a procedural shift worth having counsel navigate. County Clerk staff can explain procedure but cannot give legal advice. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving McLennan County and the greater Waco area.

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

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, ready to file with the McLennan County Clerk's Probate Section at 215 N 5th Street, and timed to the county's Wednesday-only hearing docket.

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 McLennan 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).