The field of alternatives covers everything from investments in private equity funds to private credit, infrastructure and real estate.
For ultra-high-net-worth individuals, these form an essential component of a diversified investment strategy. Navigating this world requires a keen understanding of market dynamics, risk management, and strategic investment opportunities.
Spear’s advisers not only provide access to exclusive investment opportunities but can help diversify any sizeable investment portfolio. Whether it’s private equity funds, hedge funds, real estate, or other alternative assets, these advisers stand out for their ability to guide clients through the complexities of these high-stakes markets.
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
Related
- The best private equity and alternative asset advisers: the complete list
- Methodology: how we choose our recommendations
- The best private equity and alternative asset advisers: some names to know
- Contact us
The best private equity and alternative asset advisers: the complete list
Methodology: how we choose our recommendations
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Content from our partners
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to the Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best private equity and alternative asset advisers: some names to know
Mark Florman
- Focus: Family enterprises and institutions
- Position: CEO
- Firm: Time Partners
- Rank: Top Recommended
Mark Florman has been involved in the private equity industry for over 35 years, working as an investor and adviser. At Time Partners, he specialises in advising institutions and families in particular private equity areas of strategy, master asset allocation purpose, corporate structure, private capital and long term investing.
Mark is the author of the External Rate of Return, a method of reporting all external impacts from business. He is Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics, Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, King’s College, London, and a Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD, lecturing on private capital markets and impact investing.
Read Mark Florman’s full profile on Spears500.com
Kirsty Acton
- Focus: Family offices
- Position: Director
- Firm: EQT
- Rank: Top recommended
Kirsty Acton is a director at EQT who supports UHNWs and family offices in accessing private market investments.
Responsible for the firm’s EMEA private wealth offering, she primarily works with sophisticated family offices that operate at an institutional level, with their own investment office and dedicated team.
EQT, one of the largest alternative investment platforms across Europe, focuses on projects in the healthcare, technology and industrial sectors, and had €266 billion in total assets under management as of June 30 2025. Acton joined the firm in 2022 after working in private markets for Barclays, Partners Group, Capital Generation Partners and as an independent adviser.
Read Kirsty Acton’s full profile on Spears500.com
Victoria Matthews
- Focus: Family office clients
- Position: Managing director, head of UK family offices, endowments and foundations
- Firm: BlackRock
- Rank: Top recommended
Victoria Matthews, managing director, leads the UK Family Offices, Endowments & Foundation business at BlackRock. She manages the firm’s relationships with some of the largest single and multi-family offices, as well as strategic endowments and foundations.
She is responsible for delivering institutional solutions across equity, fixed income and alternative asset classes to help her clients achieve their unique investment objectives. She works directly with the firm’s active equity, fixed income and alternatives investment managers from around the world, together with the expansive iShares team, to provide customised strategies across both public and private asset classes for her clients.
Read Victoria Matthews’ full profile on Spears500.com
Odumade Odutola
- Focus: Private markets access
- Position: Director, head of UK, Middle East and Nordics
- Firm: KKR
- Rank: Top recommended
Odumade Odutola is a director at KKR, where he is responsible for capital raising across the UK, Northern Europe and the Middle East. In this role, he partners with wealth managers at leading private banks, providing their clients with access to KKR’s private market investment solutions.
The firm manages $260 billion in AuM and covers the full spectrum of private markets, including private equity, infrastructure, credit and real estate funds.
Read Odumade Odutola’s full profile on Spears500.com
Hector Moreno
- Focus: Technology sectors
- Position: Managing director
- Firm: Blackstone
- Rank: Top recommended
Hector Moreno is a managing director in Blackstone’s private wealth solutions team, where he leads non-institutional capital fundraising across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Israel and the Nordics.
Moreno partners with private banks and wealth managers – and, ultimately, their clients – to find the appropriate private market funds for client portfolios.
Read Hector Moreno’s full profile on Spears500.com
Contact us
- Click here to order a print copy of The Spear’s 500.
- To apply for inclusion in The Spear’s 500, complete our submission form.
- For further information about rankings, please email research@spearswms.com; we aim to respond to all queries within two working days.
- For commercial enquiries and questions relating to enhanced profiles, please contact Commercial Director Shady Elkholy: shady.elkholy@spearswms.com
- To keep up to date with the Spear’s 500, subscribe to our magazine, newsletter and follow Spear’s on LinkedIn and Instagram.
- If you have missed calendar deadlines for our research cycles in 2025, you can still register your interest for updates about upcoming research and rankings.
