Aircraft and aircraft parts companies–including maintenance, repair and overhaul businesses–will feed a strong environment for middle-market deal making in aerospace and defense in 2018, according to new report from a Miami investment bank.

Family offices are the hot new buyers in the lower middle market, but involving them in a deal process is not without headaches.

If a disaster or other unexpected event were to strike your business, would you be prepared, and would your brand be protected?

To say that the American mall is dead is a gross exaggeration. While many shopping centers across the country are struggling, so-called Class A mall real estate, typically in densely populated major metropolitan areas with attractive demographics and innovative concepts, is doing well and piquing investor interest.

With the Fed set to raise rates for the first time this year, expect financials, technology and home improvement suppliers to benefit. Home builders and utility players, on the other hand, could lose from the Fed’s rate decision.

More private-equity firms are sprouting up in Florida as sponsors branch out on their own.

Florida continues to be an attractive destination for private equity, as deal flow grew for the third time in the past four years.

James Cassel has hired hundreds of people to work at the various companies he has helped start and run over the past four decades. Still, after all that time, the lawyer and investment banker says knowing when to staff up remains one of the hardest parts of being an entrepreneur.

So far this year, there have been two major deals in the spirits industry: Bacardi Ltd.’s acquisition of Patrón Spirits International AG, and Pernod Ricard SA’s purchase of the remainder of Avión Spirits LLC, both hip-hop- approved tequila brands.