Montgomery County, TX Probate Information

Before you file anything in Montgomery County, know what is in the estate, how each asset is titled, and what is owed. Which Texas route fits depends on whether there is a will, whether the estate owes unpaid debts other than debts secured by liens on real estate, whether all the heirs agree, and what the assets are actually worth. Those routes are created by state statute and are identical in all 254 counties, so they are covered on the Texas state page. Getting the route right before the first filing matters more here than in many counties, because Probate Court No. 1 publishes a detailed small estate affidavit checklist that opens with a warning worth repeating: banks, insurance companies and title companies often tell people to file a small estate affidavit without considering the limited circumstances in which one can be granted, many affidavits are denied for problems that cannot be corrected, and the denied applicants lose their filing fees. The fee to open a new estate case here is $445.00 with posting included, on the county's own fee schedule revised July 16, 2026, so filing the wrong application is an expensive way to learn what the estate contained.

Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle, business interest and parcel of Montgomery County real estate, along with every debt, before you file. Titling decides whether an asset reaches the court at all: property held with a right of survivorship, accounts with a named beneficiary, and land in Conroe, Willis, Magnolia or The Woodlands covered by a transfer on death deed recorded before death pass directly to the survivor or beneficiary and never reach a probate court. The debt side matters just as much in this court, because a muniment of title application turns on there being no unpaid debt other than one secured by a lien on real estate (Estates Code § 257.001), and because the court requires every muniment and small estate affidavit filing to address whether the decedent received Medicaid benefits on or after March 1, 2005. Sunset's asset-discovery work, searching more than 2,300 financial institutions, exists for this step, so the application you or your attorney e-file describes the estate accurately the first time, and so the inventory that follows is right.

Montgomery County's probate work runs through one court and one filing counter. Probate Court No. 1 of Montgomery County is created by Government Code § 25.1721(b), and in a county that has a statutory probate court, that court has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(c)). Every application, whatever the route, is filed with the Montgomery County Clerk at 210 West Davis, Conroe, TX 77301, or mailed to Post Office Box 959, Conroe, Texas 77305, because the county clerk of Montgomery County serves as clerk of a statutory probate court (Government Code § 25.1723(f)). The court's own local rules say the same thing and add the assignment mechanism: all cases in which the probate courts have exclusive jurisdiction are filed in the county clerk's office and assigned to the probate courts in equal rotation, which today means the single court (the Montgomery County Probate Courts Rules of Administration, adopted July 15, 2026, Rule 4.1). The clerk's East County Annex in New Caney and South County Annex in The Woodlands handle vital records, assumed names, real property copies and criminal case payments, and their published service lists do not include court filings, so there is no branch probate counter. The court and the clerk serve the whole county from Conroe, the county seat, including The Woodlands, Conroe, Willis, Magnolia, Montgomery, New Caney, Porter, Splendora, Oak Ridge North, Shenandoah, Panorama Village, Patton Village, Roman Forest, Woodbranch, Cut and Shoot, Stagecoach and Woodloch.

Venue is the county where the decedent lived. You file in the county in which the decedent resided, if the decedent had a domicile or fixed place of residence in Texas (Estates Code § 33.001(a)(1)). 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)). This matters unusually often in Montgomery County, because the county sits inside the Houston metropolitan area and a Houston, Spring, Magnolia or Tomball mailing address does not by itself put an estate here. Homes with those addresses can sit in Harris, Waller, Liberty or Grimes County, each with its own court and its own filing counter. The court makes the point itself in its small estate affidavit checklist: an affidavit should be filed in the county where the decedent resided if the decedent had a domicile or fixed place of residence in Texas, granting one is in the court's discretion, and it is unusual for the court to approve an affidavit for a decedent who did not have a fixed place of residence in Montgomery County. Confirm which county the decedent's home actually sat in before you file.

A contested matter does not leave this court, and that is the biggest structural difference between Montgomery County and the 156 Texas counties that have only a constitutional county court. In a county with a statutory probate court, that court has exclusive jurisdiction of all probate proceedings, regardless of whether contested or uncontested, and a cause of action related to the probate proceeding must be brought in a statutory probate court unless its jurisdiction is concurrent with a district court under Estates Code § 32.007 or with another court (§ 32.005(a)). So there is no transfer of a will contest or an heirship dispute to a district court and no request for an assigned judge: the same Montgomery County probate judge keeps the case. The Legislature has also given this court a named overlap with the district courts: a statutory probate court of Montgomery County has concurrent jurisdiction with the district court, regardless of the amount in controversy or the relief sought, in disputes relating to the creation of a constructive trust, declaratory judgment actions, actions in which the only relief sought is a writ of injunction, and actions to appoint a receiver (Government Code § 25.1723(b)). The same section lets the judge of the statutory probate court and a judge of a district court or statutory county court in the county exchange benches and sit for each other (§ 25.1723(e)), and lets the court conduct docket matters anywhere in the county where the judge considers it necessary for the protection of wards or mental health respondents (§ 25.1723(d)). Section 25.1723 was itself last amended effective December 4, 2025.

Ancillary lawsuits stay tied to the estate. The local rules define an ancillary matter as a lawsuit brought by or against a personal representative, or on behalf of a decedent's or protected person's estate, that does not concern the routine administration of the estate, and give examples: note collection, personal injury, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and trust litigation. Those are filed in the probate court where the related case is pending but under separate case numbers, and a suit on a claim in a probate administration or an action concerning a testamentary trust gets a new civil cause number assigned to the court where the administration is pending (the Montgomery County Probate Courts Rules of Administration, adopted July 15, 2026, Rules 4.4 and 4.6). Any later civil matter involving the same decedent goes to the court where the earlier matter was pending (Rule 4.2), and a proceeding that attacks or seeks to set aside an order or decree of the court is assigned back to the court that rendered it (Rule 4.3). If a case is misfiled with the wrong court and no citation has issued, the county clerk or district clerk transfers it automatically to the proper court (Rule 9.1).

This is the most recently created statutory probate bench in Texas, and the paper trail still shows it. The county's own department page states it in capitals: as of 10/1/2023 County Court at Law No. 2 has converted to a statutory probate court. That is why Government Code § 25.1721(a) lists Montgomery County's county courts at law as No. 1, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6, with no No. 2, and why § 25.1721(b) reads that the county has one statutory probate court, the Probate Court No. 1 of Montgomery County. Practical consequences follow. Older directories and some of the county's own links still route probate through county court at law No. 2 paths, and the court's public broadcast channel still carries a county-court-at-law-2 handle. The court's own standing orders date from the conversion day itself, October 1, 2023: the remote hearings order, the recording policy and the order setting the attorney ad litem deposit were all signed that day.

Almost everything is on Zoom, and the rules for it are written down. Probate Court No. 1 publishes a Zoom link for each regular docket and broadcasts proceedings on its own YouTube channel, and its Standing Order Regarding Remote Hearings or Appearances, effective October 1, 2023, sets the conditions. You need internet access, a video camera and a headset with a microphone; if you can only participate by telephone you must coordinate it the day before with the appropriate court coordinator; exhibits must be emailed to all parties and to the court reporter in PDF, with the full cause number and the party's name in the subject line, no later than 3:00 p.m. the day before the hearing, and the court cannot consider exhibits that arrive late or in the wrong format. Attorneys noticing a Zoom hearing must include the link and meeting ID the court gives them when the hearing is set. Participants must be appropriately dressed, stay muted until their case is called, identify themselves by first and last name in the Zoom window, and not participate while driving. Trials are in person: the court warns not to use a Zoom link for a trial appearance without written permission, and where a case has been set for an in-person hearing you must file a motion for permission to appear remotely.

You may watch, but you may not record. The court's published Recording of Court Proceedings policy, executed October 1, 2023, defines recording as photographing, audio recording or video recording by any means, and prohibits it in the court unless the presiding judge's written approval has been placed in the case file. Even with approval, no video may be taken of jurors, and any approved recording is not part of the official court record. The provision that surprises people is aimed at the court's own broadcast: Zoom proceedings shall not be recorded, nor shall the YouTube videos compiled from those proceedings be recorded or obtained through subpoena or any other means. Separately, the court states that all proceedings including remote proceedings are open to the public, and that to attend one you should appear in person in the courtroom.

The local rules are brand new, and they bind self-represented filers exactly as they bind lawyers. The Montgomery County Probate Courts Rules of Administration were adopted on July 15, 2026, with companion Rules of Administration for Texas Health and Safety Code Cases adopted July 7, 2026, both signed by the judge presiding acting as the county's statutory probate courts administrative judge. They are made under Government Code § 25.0022(d)(1), Rule 10 of the Texas Rules of Judicial Administration, Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 3a and Rule 2 of the Presiding State Statutory Probate Judge Administrative Order 2025-2, they take effect immediately after posting, they constitute standing orders of the county's statutory probate courts, and they supersede the probate rules referred to in the county's Rules of Administration of December 16, 2022. Rule 20 is the one to read if you are handling an estate yourself: all requirements of the rules apply with equal force to self-represented litigants whether or not they are licensed to practise law in Texas, self-represented litigants must provide a current address, telephone number and email address at which court personnel and the opposing parties can reach them, failure to accept delivery or collect mail is treated as constructive receipt, and wherever the rules say counsel or attorney they include a party without an attorney.

The small estate affidavit form is mandatory here, and the court explains why. Under the Standing Order Regarding Small Estate Affidavits, signed May 2, 2025 and effective May 5, 2025, applicants must use the court's promulgated forms published on its website when filing a small estate affidavit and order, to facilitate administration of the increasing number of those filings. Rule 11.5 of the local rules says the same. The court's checklist explains the problem it is solving in unusually direct language: banks, insurance companies and title companies often tell people to file a small estate affidavit without considering the limited circumstances in which one can be granted, people fill out a form without reading the statute or understanding Texas intestacy law, pay the filing fee and expect approval, and many affidavits are denied for problems that cannot be corrected, with the filing fee lost. The route is intestate only and the ceiling is $75,000 excluding homestead and exempt property (Estates Code § 205.001), and the court adds local practice on top: it will not approve an affidavit with a minor heir unless everything the minor inherits can be placed in the registry of the court until the heir turns 18, it usually does not hold a hearing on an affidavit but will contact you to set one if it needs to, and if a distributee is missing or has died without a personal representative you cannot use the affidavit route at all and must file an application to determine heirship.

Medicaid estate recovery has to be addressed in writing. This is the local requirement most likely to send a muniment of title application back. The court states that if the decedent applied for and received Medicaid benefits on or after March 1, 2005, the Medicaid Estate Recovery Program may have a claim against the estate, so a certificate attesting to the status of that class 7 probate claim must accompany the proceeding, and if the claim has been waived a specific sentence recording the waiver must appear in the order admitting the will to probate. If the decedent did not receive those benefits, the court requires a sentence saying so in the application, in the proof of death and other facts, and in the order. Its small estate affidavit checklist carries the same requirement, with three ways to satisfy it: list the amount owed as a liability, file a program certification that the estate is not subject to a claim, or include additional information proving no claim will be filed. The court links the state health and human services authorization and certification form.

Late wills and missing wills get named statutory treatment. The court publishes what it expects in the two situations that most often break an otherwise simple probate. For a will offered more than four years after death (Estates Code § 256.003), it points to Estates Code § 258.051 and requires testimony at the hearing establishing the decedent's intestate heirs so the court can decide whether notice was properly given; where an heir died after the decedent without being served, service should be made under § 51.057, and where publication is needed the applicant should ask for the appointment of an attorney ad litem under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 244. For a will that cannot be produced, it points to § 258.002 and the same heirship testimony, and it works through the proof problem in detail, explaining with reference to Texas appellate decisions that a self-proved will does not need the additional witness proof that § 256.153 requires for a will that is not self-proved, and noting the 2025 amendment adding Estates Code § 256.156(c), under which a copy of a will that cannot be produced in court is sufficient to make the will self-proved if it includes a copy of a qualifying self-proving affidavit.

The county runs its own probate case search. The Montgomery County Clerk operates an Odyssey public access portal at odyssey.mctx.org, branded County Clerk Court Records Inquiry, with a Civil and Probate Case Records search by case number, party, attorney or filing date, a Court Calendar search, and a location selector covering all county courts. It publishes no coverage dates, so ask the clerk how far back the index reaches for an older estate. Do not confuse it with the county's public records search at montgomery.tx.publicsearch.us, which is the real property and recording index rather than a court docket. The statewide re:SearchTX portal is a separate system that provides an unofficial copy of case index information and documents, requires free registration and charges per document, and the county clerk remains the official custodian of the court's records.

Heirship service runs through the county clerk, and the court polices it. In an heirship all heirs must either waive service or be served citation through the Montgomery County Clerk under the Estates Code service provisions the court names, and the court adds an instruction in its own emphatic wording: return receipts will not be accepted from attorneys. Proposed heirship orders must comply with the intestate distribution rules and must address the distribution of separate property even where the applicant asserts the estate is entirely community property, because the court is not making a finding on the character of the property. The applicant must appear with two disinterested witnesses. And where an attorney ad litem is ordered paid, the court notes that the Supreme Court of Texas requires the fee order to be a separate order rather than part of the heirship order, citing Misc. Docket No. 94-9143 of September 21, 1994.

There is a county guardianship department behind the probate court. Montgomery County runs a Guardianship Program Department at 301 N. Thompson, Suite 209A, Conroe, Texas 77301, (936) 538-8300, made up of the court investigators appointed to investigate guardianship matters active in Probate Court No. 1 and a certified professional guardian who serves where a third-party guardian is needed, and it also runs the court visitor program. The arrangement has both a statutory and a local-rule basis: a statutory probate court of Montgomery County may appoint as a court investigator an employee of the court or of another county department (Government Code § 25.1723(g)), and the local rules provide that unless the department is conflicted or unavailable, the county guardianship program is named as guardian for an indigent ward without a qualified guardian and its employees complete the guardianship investigations the Estates Code requires (the Montgomery County Probate Courts Rules of Administration, adopted July 15, 2026, Rule 7). That matters to families with an incapacitated relative rather than to a straightforward estate, but it is the right first call in that situation.

Contested matters stay here, with two named overlaps. Because Montgomery County has a statutory probate court, that court has exclusive jurisdiction of all probate proceedings, contested or uncontested (Estates Code § 32.005(a)), so a will contest or an heirship dispute is not transferred to a district court and no assigned judge is requested, which is the norm in most Texas counties. Two overlaps are written into the Government Code for this county: the statutory probate court has concurrent jurisdiction with the district court, whatever the amount in controversy, in constructive trust disputes, declaratory judgment actions, injunction-only actions and receivership appointments (§ 25.1723(b)), and the probate judge and a district or statutory county court judge in the county may exchange benches and sit for each other (§ 25.1723(e)). The local rules add the contested-track practice: the probate judges strongly encourage alternative dispute resolution, mediation is ordered at the court's discretion, and personal appearance by each party and their attorney is required at mediation unless the court says otherwise, with the court's own procedures page adding that mediation is not complete until the parties and their attorneys have attended the entire mediation in person, or by Zoom where permitted, and that telephone attendance is not allowed without specific permission.

Montgomery County does not require counsel across the board, but its court answers the question directly in two places, so start there. First, the court states on its own small estate affidavit page that an applicant for a determination of heirship must be represented by an attorney, which means the most common intestate route here begins with a lawyer. Second, the court publishes a Representing Yourself in Probate Court section that collects the Texas appellate decisions on the limits of appearing without counsel, and its local rules make clear that self-representation buys no procedural latitude: all requirements of the Montgomery County Probate Courts Rules of Administration apply with equal force to self-represented litigants whether or not they are licensed to practise law in Texas, and wherever the rules say counsel or attorney they include a party without one (Rules 20.1 and 20.2). Beyond that, counsel makes sense for the usual reasons and for some local ones. A contested matter stays in this court rather than moving to a district court (Estates Code § 32.005(a)), and the court strongly encourages alternative dispute resolution and requires parties and their attorneys to attend the whole of an ordered mediation in person. A will offered more than four years after death (§ 256.003) or a will that cannot be produced draws named statutory requirements and heirship testimony that the court sets out in detail. A muniment of title application has to address Medicaid estate recovery in the application, the proof of death and other facts, and the order. A small estate affidavit has to be right the first time on the court's mandatory form, and the court says openly that an attorney's help in drafting one may prevent the denial of an affidavit that could have been approved. A nonresident representative has to appoint a resident agent to qualify (§ 304.003(a)(3)). And a dependent administration with real property to sell runs through court applications, postings and accounts from start to finish. Sunset can connect families to a vetted Montgomery County probate attorney when the situation calls for counsel.

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, Montgomery County real estate, business interests and unclaimed property, so you know the estate's value and its debts, and therefore which Texas route fits, before anything is filed at 210 West Davis.

Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your estate settlement route and pairs it with Probate Court No. 1's own forms, including its inventory form and Excel template, its affidavit in lieu of inventory and its mandatory small estate affidavit, prepared so it can be e-filed through eFileTexas.gov.

Find a local probate attorney. Montgomery County's court requires an attorney for a determination of heirship and holds self-represented filers to the same rules as lawyers, so counsel is often the practical choice here. Sunset connects families to a vetted Texas probate attorney serving Montgomery County, Conroe and The Woodlands.

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).