San Antonio Living Trust: Bexar County Probate Court and Deed Recording

By Rozsa Gyene, California estate planning attorney, State Bar of California #208356. Published September 28, 2026. Last reviewed September 28, 2026.

Which county this page covers

This page covers Bexar County, whose courts and clerk are in San Antonio. Probate is filed in the county where the person lived and deeds are recorded in the county where the land is, so if your San Antonio address falls in a neighboring county, that county's probate court and county clerk apply instead of the offices below. This page does not state which neighboring counties, if any, the city extends into, because no official page stating that could be opened when it was written.

The Bexar County Probate Courts

Bexar County's official site describes a probate system divided into three separate courts, each headed by an elected judge. Their work: probating the wills of deceased persons, declaring the heirs of people who die without a will, establishing guardianships for incapacitated persons, and, in Probate Court 1, court ordered mental health cases. The same page explains that the probate court supervises the administration of estates and hears matters involving living, testamentary and charitable trusts. Under Texas Estates Code Section 32.005, in a county with a statutory probate court that court has exclusive jurisdiction of probate proceedings, contested or not.

The county page also lists a Mental Health Court at 300 Dolorosa. Probate filing fees were not shown on the pages read for this article; the Probate Clerk's office is the place to confirm them.

Recording a deed with the Bexar County Clerk

The Bexar County Clerk's Recordings Division files and maintains real property records, and its Real Property page spells out how to record. Documents are accepted in person or by mail; the original with original signatures is required, and the clerk will not record a copy. Recordings are completed immediately: once a document is cashiered, assigned an instrument number and scanned, the original is returned. The clerk's office does not prepare deeds.

Fees and payment

The clerk accepts cash, credit card (except American Express), checks and money orders, payable to Bexar County Clerk. Plain copies of a recorded deed can be found free through the Official Public Records Search, and certified copies are requested in person at the Deed Records Department in the Paul Elizondo Tower or by mail.

E-recording

Bexar County accepts electronic recording through its listed providers (CSC, Simplifile, Erxchange, eRecording Partners Network, Indecomm and Hopdox), but only for the persons Texas Local Government Code Section 195.003 authorizes: attorneys licensed in Texas, banks and lenders, title companies and agents, state agencies and municipal clerks. A homeowner recording a trust deed personally uses the counter or the mail.

What this means for a San Antonio homeowner

With a will alone, a San Antonio estate is opened in one of the three probate courts above and follows the steps in the Texas probate process guide. A home and accounts moved into a living trust during life are the trust's property, so the successor trustee manages and distributes them under the trust without a court proceeding. The deed to the trustee is recorded once, at the Recordings Division, while the owner is alive.