Many parents have plans to leave their assets, money and heirlooms to their children as heirs. Unfortunately, this does not happen automatically upon the parent’s death. Without the proper estate planning, the heirs may end up spending much of their time and money in probate court. A better alternative is avoiding probate by establishing a living trust while alive and transferring the estate assets upon the death of the parents to the heirs through trust administration, which usually does not require probate court supervision.