This area of law combines elements of Estate Planning, Wills, Trusts and Estates, Guardianship (also called Conservatorship), Health Care Planning, Medicaid Planning, Tax Planning and Elder Rights. 

Seniors are more active and live longer than ever before, but they have a new set of legal concerns that have rarely been addressed by earlier generations. Older people have always needed Wills, Trusts and/or Estate Planning to pass their assets to their beneficiaries. Now that they are living longer, there are more issues about their future care that have to be included in an Estate Plan, such as planning for housing, future medical care, and what to do if the person should become incapacitated. One of the most important questions that is being raised is how to provide long-term assisted living housing, with possibly increasing levels of care, including nursing home care, as the seniors age. This, in turn, is giving rise to a whole new industry of assisted living and nursing home facilities and raising many legal questions about contract rights and the power of facilities to discharge residents. As continuing care becomes more and more expensive, seniors are also in need on information about the availability of long-term care insurance and government benefits such as Medicare and Medicaid.