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Wharton County, TX Probate Information
Quick facts
| Category | Current rules |
|---|---|
| Court | The Wharton County Court, the constitutional county court, presided over by the elected County Judge, who need not be a lawyer. Government Code Chapter 25 contains no Wharton County entries (verified August 2026), so Wharton has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, and the county court has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings under the Texas Estates Code (§ 32.002(a)). The County Judge is Phillip Spenrath, per the county's own page (verified August 2026), at the Wharton County Courthouse, 100 S. Fulton Street, Suite 100, Wharton, TX 77488, (979) 532-4612 |
| Filing office | The Wharton County Clerk, Barbara Svatek, who is the clerk of the county court (Texas Constitution article V, § 20). The clerk's own page names Tracy Klimple as the contact for its Probate, Guardianship & Civil Department (verified August 2026). Do not take a probate filing to the courthouse at 100 S. Fulton Street; the clerk's office is in a separate building |
| Courthouse | The probate filing counter is the Wharton County Clerk's office, 309 E. Milam Street, Suite 700, Wharton, TX 77488. The Wharton County Courthouse itself, where the County Judge's office is, is at 100 S. Fulton Street, per the county's own site |
| Mailing address | P.O. Box 69, Wharton, Texas 77488, published by the County Clerk |
| Phone | (979) 532-2381 for the Wharton County Clerk, published on the clerk's own page. For the County Judge's office, (979) 532-4612 |
| Fax | (979) 532-8426, published by the County Clerk |
| Office hours | Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., per the County Clerk's own page (verified August 2026). The clerk adds that "Telephone calls will be accepted until 5:00 P.M." |
| Filing fee | $360.00 for a will, muniment of title, administration, determination of heirship, small estate affidavit, foreign will, or opening a safe deposit box, per the County Clerk's own dedicated Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule. That figure matches the statewide statutory base exactly (Local Government Code §§ 135.102(a)(1), 133.151(a)(1), effective January 1, 2022). No effective date is printed on the schedule itself; its filename implies January 2022, but that is not the same as a printed date |
| Local forms | None. Texas has no comprehensive statewide set of probate procedure forms, and Wharton County publishes no probate application, order, oath or inventory form of its own. What the County Clerk does publish is a dedicated, itemized Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| E-filing | Mandatory for attorneys statewide since July 1, 2016 at the latest (Supreme Court of Texas Misc. Docket No. 13-9164; Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)), through eFileTexas.gov. The Wharton County Clerk's own page states only that "Attorneys can now e-file criminal misdemeanor filings for existing cases"; no probate-specific county e-filing date is published, so none is asserted here |
| Case search | Available. The County Clerk's own page links "Civil, Criminal, Probate Records online" to a third-party portal, idocket.com. Documents e-filed in a Wharton probate case may also be reachable through the statewide re:SearchTX portal, which requires free registration and charges for documents |
| Remote appearance | Not published. Wharton County does not state a remote-appearance policy for probate hearings on the Clerk's or County Judge's pages |
| Website | https://www.co.wharton.tx.us/page/wharton.County.Clerk (the Wharton County Clerk) and https://newtools.cira.state.tx.us/upload/page/6991/docs/County%20Clerk/PROBATE%20GUARDIANSHIP%20FEE%20SCHEDULE%20202201.pdf (the Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule) |
Before you begin — know the assets and liabilities
Before filing anything in Wharton, 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 Wharton's own itemized fee schedule prices each route differently, so knowing the route in advance means knowing the cost in advance too.
Identify every bank and credit union account, retirement plan, brokerage holding, life insurance policy, vehicle and parcel of Wharton 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 Wharton County Clerk describes the estate accurately the first time.
Which court handles jurisdiction
The Wharton County Clerk's office at 309 E. Milam Street is the probate filing location for the whole county. It is a separate building from the Wharton County Courthouse at 100 S. Fulton Street, where the County Judge's office is, so confirm the address before a trip to file or pick up documents. The court serves every part of the county, including Wharton, El Campo and East Bernard.
Venue is straightforward for a Wharton County 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 Wharton County, the case belongs in the Wharton County Court, even if they died in a hospital in Houston. 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)).
Wharton County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law, so the Wharton County Court, the constitutional county court, has original jurisdiction of probate proceedings (Estates Code § 32.002(a)), and the elected County Judge presides. The 23rd and 329th District Courts also sit in Wharton County, but district courts 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. 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)). 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)).
The jurisdiction process
- Confirm the route and gather the documents. Collect the original signed will if there is one, a certified copy of the death certificate, the names and addresses of the people who inherit, and a list of assets and debts with values. A person named in a will to settle the estate is an executor; a person appointed by the court where there is no will, or where no named executor qualifies, is an administrator; the Texas Estates Code's umbrella term for either is personal representative.
- Draft the papers yourself or with an attorney. Texas has no comprehensive statewide set of probate procedure forms and Wharton County publishes none of its own, so the application, the proof of death and other facts, the proposed order, the oath and the inventory are drafted documents, not fill-in forms.
- E-file the application through eFileTexas.gov if you are represented by an attorney. Attorneys must e-file in probate matters statewide since July 1, 2016 at the latest (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)); an unrepresented party may e-file but is not required to. The Wharton County Clerk publishes no probate-specific e-filing notice, so call the County Clerk at (979) 532-2381 and ask what the office will accept on paper.
- Deliver the original will to the County Clerk within three business days. This is statewide and there is no electronic substitute: when a party electronically files an application to probate a document as an original will, the original will must be filed with the clerk within three business days after the application is filed (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)). Take or send the wet-ink original to the County Clerk, 309 E. Milam Street, Suite 700, Wharton, TX 77488, or mail it to P.O. Box 69, Wharton, Texas 77488.
- Pay the filing fee. The County Clerk's own Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule prices a will, muniment of title, administration, determination of heirship, small estate affidavit, foreign will, or opening a safe deposit box at $360.00 flat, matching the statewide statutory base. An adverse action or heirship successor filing costs $80.00. A filer who cannot afford the fee files a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs, the statewide form required by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145.
- Let the clerk and court set the hearing. Wharton County publishes no probate-specific hearing day, filing-to-hearing window or remote-appearance rule, so confirm the schedule directly with the County Judge's office, (979) 532-4612, once the application is on file.
- Have the citation issued or re-issued if the application requires it. The county's own fee schedule prices a citation re-issue at $14.00. Nothing is heard until any required posting or citation period has run and the return is on file.
- Collect the letters. On an admitted will the court grants Letters Testamentary to a qualifying executor (Estates Code § 306.001); where there is no will, or no named executor qualifies, it grants Letters of Administration (§ 306.002). Each set costs $2.00 on the county's own schedule, matching the statutory per-document fee (Local Government Code § 118.061); order enough for every bank, transfer agent and title company the estate has to deal with.
- Administer the estate and file what the statute requires. Notice to beneficiaries after an order admitting a will (§ 308.002), published notice to creditors within one month of receiving letters (§ 308.051), notice to secured creditors within two months (§ 308.053), and the inventory, due before the 91st day after the personal representative qualifies unless the court grants longer (§ 309.051(a)), are set by state statute and apply the same way in every Texas county. File them with the Wharton County Clerk, whose own schedule prices the inventory and order at $27.00. Where the estate is being run as an independent administration, the court's involvement after the appointment order and the inventory is deliberately minimal (Estates Code chapters 401 to 405). Closing the estate through an application to close costs $56.00 on the county's own schedule.
Forms and documents
Probate forms in Wharton County
Wharton County publishes no local probate forms. There is no county application to probate a will, no county order, no county oath and no county small estate affidavit template. Texas as a whole has no comprehensive set of probate procedure forms either: the Texas Judicial Branch forms page carries only will forms, a transfer on death deed kit and civil forms in this area, and the Supreme Court of Texas has not promulgated a small estate affidavit form or a muniment of title form under Government Code § 22.020(b)(1) (Estates Code chapters 205 and 257). In practice this means the application, the proof of death and other facts, the proposed order, the oath and the inventory in a Wharton County estate are drafted documents.
What the County Clerk does publish, and what makes Wharton unusual for a county this size, is a dedicated, itemized Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule covering nearly every probate and guardianship filing type by name, and its own probate case search through a third-party portal.
| Resource | What it provides |
|---|---|
| Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule (co.wharton.tx.us) | The County Clerk's itemized probate and guardianship fee schedule: $360.00 for a will, muniment of title, administration, heirship, small estate affidavit, foreign will or safe deposit box, plus itemized add-ons for adverse action, will deposit, inventory, property sale, citation re-issue, claims, letters and closing. No effective date is printed |
| idocket.com | The third-party portal the Wharton County Clerk's page links for "Civil, Criminal, Probate Records online" |
| Texas Judicial Branch court forms (txcourts.gov) | The statewide forms that do exist, including the Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs required by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145, and the Supreme Court of Texas will forms. There is no statewide application, order, oath or inventory form |
Fees
Wharton County publishes a dedicated, itemized Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule, separate from its general clerk fee schedule (which covers real property recording and vital statistics instead). No effective date is printed on the probate schedule itself; its filename implies January 2022, which is consistent with, but is not the same thing as proof of, the date the statutory base fee took effect statewide (S.B. 41).
| Item | Amount | Authority or source |
|---|---|---|
| Will, muniment of title, administration, determination of heirship, small estate affidavit, foreign will, or opening a safe deposit box | $360.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule. Matches the statewide statutory base exactly: a $223 local consolidated fee (Local Government Code § 135.102(a)(1)) plus a $137 state consolidated fee (§ 133.151(a)(1)), both effective January 1, 2022 (S.B. 41) |
| Adverse action, determination of heirship successor | $80.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| Will deposit for safekeeping | $11.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| Inventory and order | $27.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| Sale of real property | $45.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| Sale of personal property | $41.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| Citation re-issued | $14.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| Claim against the estate | $10.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule, matching Local Government Code § 118.058 |
| Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration (the schedule's "letters of testamentary/administration" line) | $2.00 each | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule, matching Local Government Code § 118.061 |
| Application to close | $56.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| Guardianship | $360.00 | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| Certified copies | $5.00 plus $1.00 per page | Wharton County Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule |
| If you cannot afford the fee | No cost | File a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs, the statewide form required by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145 |
Recent updates
Page last reviewed: July 2026.
Scenarios
| Situation | Likely path in Wharton County | Where Sunset helps |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse, co-owned home | If the Wharton-area home was held with a right of survivorship or passed under a recorded transfer on death deed, it goes to the survivor outside the estate and the county court is not involved in the house itself. Where other assets stood in the decedent's sole name, the spouse applies with the Wharton County Clerk at 309 E. Milam Street, not at the courthouse on Fulton Street. The wet-ink original will follows within three business days (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)). Budget $360.00, the county's own flat probate fee. | Asset discovery to establish how the home and the accounts are titled and what actually has to reach the court. Packet generation for the Wharton County filing. A vetted attorney referral if title or a claim turns out to be disputed. |
| Out-of-state adult child, small estate | Most of this can be done from out of state. Attorneys must e-file through eFileTexas.gov, and an unrepresented party may e-file but is not required to under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1); Wharton County publishes no probate-specific e-filing notice, so call the County Clerk at (979) 532-2381 before trying to file on paper. A small estate affidavit, where it fits the facts, is priced at the same $360.00 flat fee on the county's own schedule. Two things still require a physical connection to Wharton: the original will must reach the County Clerk within three business days of the application, and hearing appearance rules are not published, so ask the County Judge's office directly. | Asset discovery to size the estate from out of state and confirm which route fits before anyone travels. Packet generation so the filing is accepted the first time. Attorney referral where an in-person hearing in Wharton makes local counsel the practical answer. |
| Parent settling a predeceased child's estate, home must be sold | Selling real property means someone needs the authority document, so this goes through an administration in the Wharton County Court. The parent applies, pays the $360.00 flat fee plus any citation re-issue at $14.00, and the court appoints the personal representative and grants Letters of Administration (Estates Code § 306.002), or Letters Testamentary if there is a will (§ 306.001), at $2.00 each. The inventory follows, priced at $27.00 on the county's own schedule and filed before the 91st day after the representative qualifies (§ 309.051(a)). A sale of the home is priced separately at $45.00. | Asset discovery for the child's accounts, insurance and real property. Packet generation for the administration, the sale of real property, and the inventory. Attorney referral where a sale, a mortgage payoff or a disagreement among heirs makes counsel worthwhile, which matters more here because a contested matter can be assigned to a statutory probate court judge or transferred to a district court (Estates Code § 32.003). |
Self-help resources
| Resource | What it offers |
|---|---|
| Wharton County Clerk (co.wharton.tx.us), (979) 532-2381 | The filing office for estates in Wharton County: the 309 E. Milam Street address, the 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. hours, the Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule, and the idocket.com case search link. Clerk staff can explain procedure and what the counter needs, but cannot give legal advice |
| Wharton County Judge (co.wharton.tx.us), (979) 532-4612 | The presiding officer of the Wharton County Court, the court that hears probate here, at a separate address from the County Clerk |
| idocket.com | The third-party portal the Wharton County Clerk links for civil, criminal and probate records online |
| re:SearchTX (research.txcourts.gov) | The statewide court records portal, run by the Office of Court Administration with Tyler Technologies. Free registration is required, documents are charged for, and the portal states that it provides an unofficial copy and that the clerk of the court is the official custodian. Coverage is set county by county, so confirm anything important with the Wharton County Clerk |
| eFileTexas.gov | Registration for the statewide electronic filing system, the list of certified electronic filing service providers, and filing instructions. This is where a Wharton County probate application is filed |
| Texas State Law Library probate research guide (guides.sll.texas.gov), (844) 829-2843 toll free in Texas | The strongest government self-help source for Texas probate, from a state agency: general information, probating a will, when there is no will, executors, formal administration, informal methods and legal forms. The library's own caveat is that it cannot tell you what the law means for your situation |
| TexasCourtHelp.gov | General information and videos about making your way through the Texas court system |
| TexasLawHelp.org, wills, estate planning and probate (texaslawhelp.org) | Plain-language Texas probate articles and self-help toolkits from the Texas Legal Services Center, a non-profit. Useful for orientation; it is not a court site and its materials are not court-approved forms |
| Lone Star Legal Aid, Clute office (lonestarlegal.org), (979) 849-6464 or toll free (800) 244-5492 | Free civil legal help for eligible low-income residents. Lone Star Legal Aid's own county list assigns Wharton to its Clute office, 102 Oak Park Dr, Suite 103, Clute, TX 77531. Intake hours are 8:30 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Confirm it can take a decedent's estate matter before relying on it |
| State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral and Information Service (texasbar.com), (800) 252-9690 | Referrals to Texas attorneys, Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central, Spanish spoken. The initial consultation is capped at $20 for 30 minutes. It is a referral service, not a reduced-fee or pro bono program |
| Texas law libraries directory (guides.sll.texas.gov) | The Texas State Law Library's curated directory of law libraries. It lists no law library in Wharton County; its Southeast Texas section lists the Brazoria County Law Library, 111 E. Locust, Suite 315A, Angleton, Texas 77515, (979) 864-1225, in the county directly bordering Wharton to the east. The directory is curated rather than exhaustive, so contact a library directly about public access |
| Texas Estates Code (statutes.capitol.texas.gov) | The statute itself, including the court structure provisions in chapter 32, venue in chapter 33, letters in chapter 306, notices in chapter 308 and the inventory in chapter 309 |
When to hire an attorney
Plenty of uncontested Wharton County estates are handled without a lawyer. 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. One local factor is worth knowing: the contested-matter route matters, because 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)), 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 Wharton County.
How Sunset helps
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, Wharton County real property and unclaimed property, so you know what the estate holds and which estate settlement route fits before anything is filed with the Wharton County Clerk.
Generate the probate packet. Sunset assembles the paperwork for your route, drafted to Wharton County's own requirements, ready to file with the Wharton 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 Wharton 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).
Frequently asked questions
Where do I file for probate in Wharton County?
With the Wharton County Clerk, 309 E. Milam Street, Suite 700, Wharton, TX 77488, or by mail at P.O. Box 69, Wharton, Texas 77488. This is a separate building from the Wharton County Courthouse at 100 S. Fulton Street, where the County Judge's office is. The case is heard by the Wharton County Court, the constitutional county court, presided over by the elected County Judge, because Wharton County has no statutory probate court and no county court at law (Estates Code § 32.002(a)). File in Wharton County if the decedent lived here and had a domicile or fixed place of residence in Texas (§ 33.001(a)(1)).
Is e-filing required for probate in Wharton County?
For attorneys, yes, under the statewide mandate that has covered every Texas county, including Wharton, since July 1, 2016 at the latest (Supreme Court of Texas Misc. Docket No. 13-9164). Wharton County's own e-filing statement covers only "criminal misdemeanor filings for existing cases"; no county-specific probate e-filing date is published. Under the statewide rule an unrepresented party may e-file but is not required to (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(1)); call the County Clerk at (979) 532-2381 to ask what the office will accept on paper.
What do I do with the original will in Wharton County?
You e-file a copy of the will with the application, then get the wet-ink original to the County Clerk within three business days. This is a statewide rule with no electronic substitute: when a party electronically files an application to probate a document as an original will, the original will must be filed with the clerk within three business days after the application is filed (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)). Deliver or send it to 309 E. Milam Street, Suite 700, Wharton, TX 77488, or P.O. Box 69, Wharton, Texas 77488.
How much does it cost to file probate in Wharton County?
$360.00 flat for a will, muniment of title, administration, determination of heirship, small estate affidavit, foreign will, or opening a safe deposit box, per the County Clerk's own dedicated Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule. That figure matches the statewide statutory base exactly (Local Government Code §§ 135.102(a)(1), 133.151(a)(1)), effective January 1, 2022. No effective date is printed on the county's own schedule. Add-ons the schedule prices separately include letters at $2.00 each, an inventory and order at $27.00, and an adverse action or heirship successor filing at $80.00. If you cannot afford the cost, file a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145).
Are there local probate forms in Wharton County?
No. Wharton County publishes no probate application, order, oath or small estate affidavit template of its own, and Texas has no comprehensive statewide set of probate procedure forms either, so those documents are drafted, not filled in. What the County Clerk does publish is a dedicated, itemized Probate Guardianship Fee Schedule, which is worth reading before you file.
How do I look up a Wharton County probate case online?
The Wharton County Clerk's own page links "Civil, Criminal, Probate Records online" to a third-party portal, idocket.com. Documents e-filed in a Wharton probate case may also be reachable through the statewide re:SearchTX portal, which requires free registration and charges for documents, and which states that it supplies an unofficial copy for which the clerk of the court remains the official custodian. For a definitive answer, call the Wharton County Clerk at (979) 532-2381.
What happens if someone contests the will in Wharton County?
The contest does not necessarily stay with the County Judge. In a county with no statutory probate court and no county court at law, 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, 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 (Estates Code § 32.003(a)). A party's motion for assignment beats a transfer: if it is filed first, the county judge shall grant it and may not transfer the matter unless the motion is withdrawn (§ 32.003(b)).
Do I have to travel to Wharton to settle an estate in Wharton County?
For a hearing, most likely, since the county publishes no remote-appearance policy for probate. Much of the rest can be handled at a distance: applications by an attorney are filed electronically through eFileTexas.gov, and the County Clerk's counter is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with phone calls accepted until 5:00 p.m. The one fixed physical requirement is the original will, which must reach the County Clerk within three business days of the application (Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(12)).
Shaped by the families we've helped
Thank you to the thousands of families who have trusted Sunset to help settle their loved ones' estates. This page is shaped by the questions they actually asked and the obstacles they actually hit — and that hard-won experience is what keeps it accurate, current, and genuinely useful to the families who come next.