Ep 110: M&A, private equity and the future of advice – Victoria Hicks, Founder & CEO | Melo Advisory

In this episode of Between Meetings, Matt Heine sits down with Victoria Hicks, Founder & CEO of Melo Advisory - a UK consultancy that helps financial advice firms grow, improve business value and prepare for succession or sale - to unpack the lessons Australian advice firms can take from the UK's M&A wave. They discuss why international capital was drawn to advice businesses, how buy-and-build models evolved, and why the right buyer is not always the highest bidder. Victoria Hicks explains the importance of optionality, sale readiness and stakeholder alignment, and shares practical insight on internal succession, equity participation and the risks of poorly structured deals. The conversation also looks ahead to AI, and how new advice models could broaden access while raising expectations of what human advisers need to deliver.