Top Ten UHNW Wealth Managers

‘It’ll be interesting to see what happens,’ James Whittaker says of the future of work and travel, having chosen the phone for our chat after considering Microsoft Teams and Skype.

Whittaker’s clientele is largely UK-based, but he wonders what the future will hold for those who travel between jurisdictions. ‘It’ll be interesting to see what the knock-on effects of this are, whether people will say, “Actually, we don’t need to travel as much as we can use video-conferencing apps more.”’

He has spent 14 years at UBS, and mentions that the clients he started with back then are still with him today. He has spent the past three years as the head of the bank’s UK UHNW business, and has been instrumental in growing the arm. A highlight was the hire of Coutts’ Adrian Jones.

Whittaker started his career at Coutts. He moved to UBS to take on the managing director role in 2006, where he spent more than a decade advising UHNW clients and building a ‘formidable’ team.

What’s UBS’ USP? ‘We look at your wealth through a prism combining the dimensions of great wealth: business, investments, passions and legacy,’ the firm says, adding that it has been advising ‘visionaries’ for 150 years.