James Fisher of FP Transitions on the 3 stakeholders of an M&A deal

Is winter's final stretch getting you down? Do you seek an escape from the harsh, frigid conditions on Wall Street? 

Then allow Financial Planning to transport you back to the dog days of summer and directly into the heart of Surf City.

Take a special look back at the Future Proof Festival through a series of interviews with insiders and newsmakers conducted by the Financial Planning editorial team.

In this clip, James Fisher, the vice president of mergers and acquisitions for Lake Oswego, Oregon-based valuation, succession planning and growth services firm FP Transitions, told Chief Correspondent Tobias Salinger about the main criteria his team advises wealth management practices to start with when evaluating a potential M&A deal.

After ten straight years of a record volumes of deal-making, market and economic volatility have intruded to make a small but notable impact on the number of advisory firm acquisitions so far in 2023. Still, long-term trend of investors teeming into the industry and financial advisors' succession challenges lead many experts to suggest that any stock and bond losses from a potential recession would reduce deals by only a little amount.  

Check out the full interview below.

Future Proof, an event billed as the first wealth festival, attracted more than 2,200 people to Huntington Beach, California, earlier this year. Financial Planning was a sponsor of the event. Dates for Future Proof 2023 have already been announced. The event is slated to return to the beach Sept. 10-13, 2023.