‘In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,’ remarked Benjamin Franklin in a letter from 1789 to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy. While it is true that everyone is to be taxed, it is harder to argue that this statement carries as much weight as it did almost 250 years ago.
Amid the unpredictable and uncertain policy landscape in the UK, now, perhaps more than ever, UHNWs are worrying about their tax obligations. Those with significant wealth need to consider tax owed from family businesses, liabilities pertaining to different asset classes, family offices and employees, family estates, land, trusts and cash, as well as tax which could be owed when dismantling or selling any of the above, and passing it down to children or grandchildren.
Things are further complicated when there is more than one jurisdiction to consider, as so often happens as our societies become increasingly globalised.
The job of a tax adviser is to wade through these complexities in order to make sense of an individual’s tax situation and make sure that they pay what they owe. However, in the private client world, their remit often extends far beyond this.
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In the face of uncertainty in the UK, Spear’s recognises the need to spotlight some of the best tax advisers in the industry. Having advised billionaires, multigenerational families and even some royalty, our advisers are incredibly well-placed to offer detailed, confident advice while remaining cognisant of the needs and requirements of the UHNW community.
Explore the full 2025 Spear’s Tax & Trust Indices:
- Tax Lawyers
- Contentious Trust Lawyers
- Probate and Wills Lawyers
- Tax and Trust Barristers
- Accountants and Tax Advisers
- Trusts, Structuring and Offshore
Our index has expanded further this year to reflect a new trend towards law firms expanding their tax offering and keeping advice in-house – meaning they have both lawyers and accountants who can service clients. New additions this year include Benedict Jennings and Melissa Solly from private client firm Payne Hicks Beach, who work closely with solicitors to negate the need for clients’ details to be shared outside the firm.
Alongside the many well-rounded tax advisers we feature, our index also lists advisers with a particular focus on specific areas of tax as advice becomes more complex and impenetrable. Some advisers, for example, Robert Mace at Saffery and Miles Dean, a partner at Andersen who makes his debut in the Spear’s index this year, are particularly well-versed in the tax implications of owning digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Others, such as Andrew Lockwood at S&W, are specialists in estate planning as well as renewables and farmland, an area of particular interest after recent changes to IHT in April.
Content from our partners
Lisa Gray, a partner in the private client department at Blick Rothenberg, specialises in UK/US tax obligations, and with clients who have established trusts in both or either jurisdictions; Kelly Grieg, a new addition to this year’s index and also a partner at Blick Rothenberg, specialises in family offices and succession planning, similar to Jodie Barwick-Bell, a partner at Azets. ‘When you’re making decisions about passing wealth to the next generation, it’s much wider than just understanding the tax considerations,’ says Barwick-Bell.
Indeed, what binds our advisers together is their commitment to their clients. ‘We sit down with the clients, we talk about their future aspirations, and then we produce various different models looking at the tax interaction,’ enthuses Mitch Young at Fusion Consulting. ‘We create that personal relationship with individuals, whether it’s the beneficiaries or settlor or whether it’s the individuals,’ says Maggie Gonzalez at Buzzacott. ‘They know they can just pick up the phone to ask us the questions they need to ask.’
While the current tax situation may be a cause of anxiety, our advisers are more than capable of weathering the storm. ‘I’ve got clients that I’ve been working with for 20 years – I’ve watched their kids grow up, and for some I’m even advising the second generation,’ says Martin Portnoy at EY. ‘I’m here for the long term.’
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
- Methodology
- The best accountants and tax advisers: some names to know
- The best accountants and tax advisers: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
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.
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 accountants and tax advisers: some names to know
Glenn Snow
- Focus: US and US tax advisory
- Position: Director
- Firm: USTAXFS
An expert in both the UK and US tax systems, Glenn Snow of USTAXFS brings a useful set of expertise to US clients based in the UK, as well as to UK clients who have a connection to or hold assets in the US. He is particularly adept at ‘the complex specialism of US and UK cross-border tax planning’.
The dual-qualified tax adviser was previously a tax director at EY Frank Hirth; he spent over 16 years of his career there, having joined after graduating with a degree in accounting and finance from the University of Essex.
Read Glenn Snow’s full profile on Spears500.com
Dawn Register
- Focus: Complex tax investigations and disputes
- Position: Partner and head of private client services London
- Firm: BDO
BDO’s Dawn Register, head of private client services in London and a partner in the tax dispute resolution team, specialises in helping HNWs manage their personal and cross-border tax issues.
‘I started off as purely a private wealth person,’ she says. ‘Because of where BDO is in the market, we get a lot of owner-managed business disputes. My core, more than 80 per cent of what I do, is high-net-worth individuals.’ The winner of a 2023 Spear’s Award is highly regarded within the tax advice industry, with many of her peers in other firms recommending her to Spear’s.
Read Dawn Register’s full profile on Spears500.com
Sarah Farrow
- Focus: Tax affairs for non-domiciles
- Position: Partner and head of UHNW team
- Firm: EY
Sarah Farrow is at the helm of EY’s ultra-high-net-worth tax team, the private client offering emerging from EY’s acquisition of Frank Hirth in 2021.
Farrow has more than two decades’ experience in handling the complex tax issues that HNWs, businesses, family offices and sophisticated investors face. She recalls advising a Middle Eastern client who approached her for help after inadvertently under-reporting their UK tax after ‘years of miscommunication between the client’s bankers and their former tax advisers’.
Read Sarah Farrow’s full profile on Spears500.com
Greg Limb
- Focus: Wealth creators
- Position: Partner and global head of family office and private client
- Firm: KPMG
Greg Limb is KPMG’s head of family office and private client. He operates in landscapes of ‘tremendous wealth creation’, advising globally mobile UHNWs on their tax structures.
His clients currently include individuals, family offices, entrepreneurs and private equity advisers, for whom he handles both immediate tax issues and future wealth planning. He also works with a ‘large range’ of UK and non-UK trusts and their beneficiaries on UK tax affairs, playing an ‘instrumental’ role in the creation of many of these trusts.
Read Greg Limb’s full profile on Spears500.com
Kelly Greig
- Focus: UK-US tax
- Position: Partner
- Firm: Blick Rothenberg
Kelly Greig joined Blick Rothenberg in 2024 as a partner in the private client team after a long career as a tax lawyer.
The global chair of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners provides advice to UHNWs on wealth structuring and tax planning, with an eye on multigenerational wealth protection. The families she serves – who include millionaires, centi-millionaires and billionaires – are spread globally, and Greig has a particular specialism in UK/US tax and taxation treaties.
Read Kelly Greig’s full profile on Spears500.com
Anthony Whatling
- Focus: Complex structures and family dynamics
- Position: Managing director
- Firm: Alvarez & Marsal
Anthony Whatling is a managing director in the UK office of global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal.
Having joined from Evelyn Partners in 2024, Whatling advises UHNW clients, trusts and family businesses on their tax liabilities; families who are moving from one jurisdiction to the other; and those who are setting up onshore or offshore structures to protect their wealth. He says he adds the most value where complex transactions are involved, or when it is necessary to navigate family dynamics and issues around succession.
Read Anthony Whatling’s full profile on Spears500.com
Melissa Solly
- Focus: In-house accounting advice
- Position: Partner
- Firm: Payne Hicks Beach
‘I’m a bit of an odd one out at Payne Hicks Beach,’ says Melissa Solly, a chartered accountant and tax adviser who, unlike most of her colleagues at the private client firm, is not a lawyer. However, she often works collaboratively with the firm’s tax lawyers, pooling their knowledge so that clients can ‘get more of their work done under one roof’.
Her expertise covers pre-arrival and post-arrival tax planning for those moving to the UK, alongside succession and estate planning.
Read Melissa Solly’s full profile on Spears500.com
Gary Ashford
- Focus: Contentious matters and investigations
- Position: Partner
- Firm: Harbottle & Lewis
Gary Ashford is a chartered tax adviser and partner at Harbottle & Lewis. He is a former senior inspector at HMRC and an expert when it comes to contentious tax matters. He regularly helps non-domiciled and international clients identify areas of risk in their tax affairs. This may include complications with overseas structures or tax avoidance disputes, for example.
Ashford has significant experience when it comes to helping HNW clients who need to make disclosures to HMRC, or who are being investigated under Code of Practice 8 and 9 (COP8 and COP9), or as part of a criminal tax investigation.
Read Gary Ashford’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best accountants and tax advisers: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
Contact us
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With additional reporting by Alice Coleman.
