One company that has considered a merger in the past year is the Trinsum Group, which is itself the product of a union in early 2007 between Marakon, a strategy consultancy, and Integrated Finance, a financial- and risk-consulting company that includes Robert Merton, a Nobel prize-winning economist, among its founders.

ECONOMIST: Management consulting

Any future system should finance high-quality long-term supports and services that are well-integrated with medical care.

FORBES: Policy Experts Agree: The U.S. System for Financing Long-Term Care is Crumbling