The Wealth Planners Index appears as a standalone ranking for the first time in 2026. The decision to separate it from wealth management more broadly reflects a distinction that has become increasingly important in practice: wealth planning is not investment management. It is the discipline that sits upstream of investment decisions – determining structure, jurisdiction, succession, tax treatment and governance before a single asset is allocated.
In a year defined by the most significant overhaul of the UK’s private client tax environment in a generation, demand for this work has rarely been higher.
[See also: The Spear’s Wealth Management Indices 2026]
Trends in 2026
The Budget effect
The changes introduced in the Autumn Budget have fundamentally reshaped the planning landscape for a large portion of the client base these advisers serve. For many, the conversations that were theoretical have become urgent.
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Chris Allen of Arbuthnot Latham describes the scope of the work this has generated: ‘It’s a case of not just looking directly at the client. It’s looking at their whole family, looking left and right of the family tree and up and down. We want to give true intergenerational planning, not just looking at one person and the pounds they have in their bank account.’
Explore the other rankings within the Wealth Management Indices 2026:
- Best UHNW Wealth Managers
- Best HNW Wealth Managers
- Best Wealth Managers: Jersey
- Best Wealth Managers: Guernsey
- Best Wealth Managers: Switzerland
- Best Wealth Managers: Middle East
- Best Family Office Advisory & Consultancy
- Best Family Office Banking & Investment Services
- Best Generational Wealth and Family Business Advisers
Sophie Dworetzsky, who joined Lombard Odier as head of wealth planning UK in September 2025 having spent the previous sixteen years as a partner at Charles Russell Speechlys and Withers, is clear about the limits of tax as a planning driver: ‘Tax does not wag the bigger dog. If you’re going to move, think about the bigger tax implications.’
The abolition of the remittance basis has been one of the most significant shifts in her recent work, reshaping planning for a large portion of her international client base.
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Cross-border complexity
As clients become more internationally mobile – and as the UK’s tax environment makes that mobility more attractive – the cross-border dimension of wealth planning has grown considerably.
Jeremy Franks, who heads the wealth planning team at HSBC Private Bank across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, notes that complexity tends to increase as wealth does: ‘As you go up the wealth spectrum, there is often significant complexity [in regard to] cross-border issues, because often family members may be in numerous different countries.’ His practice spans five distinct disciplines – wealth structuring, financial planning, family governance, family office advisory and philanthropic advisory – and he is deliberate about examining them in relation to one another rather than in isolation.
[See also: The 2026 Spear’s wealth management survey]
Swaati Osborne of LGT Wealth Management, who leads the firm’s US wealth planning practice, works with a similarly cross-border client base, helping families navigate the particular complexity of US-UK planning. Her approach emphasises clarity over jargon: Being able to see things visually is a nice way for someone who has not worked with finances a lot, to give comfort.’
Planning for the next generation
Generational wealth transfer has moved from background concern to front-of-mind priority for many families, and the advisers in this Index are increasingly being asked to lead those conversations.
Ola Adeosun of LGT Wealth Management, regional head of wealth planning and family governance, notes that the question is not always as as simple as putting the right structures in place: ‘It’s not as straightforward as focusing on the right structures to transition the family wealth to the next generation.’
The questions that follow – how to educate the next generation about how wealth was created, what role they should play in managing it, whether wealth should be held together or separately – require a different kind of expertise. His bespoke education programme for entrepreneurial families, including the firm’s next generation programme for those aged 18 to 50, reflects how far this advisory work has evolved.
Alex May of Cazenove Capital, whose clients include business owners, finance professionals and those with landed estates, frames the planning philosophy simply: ‘It’s very much thinking about the desired outcome and how we’re going to get there, rather than trying to put clients into boxes.’
The professionals featured here are assessed by the Spear’s Research Unit across technical expertise, planning breadth, client service and the ability to navigate the complexity that defines private wealth in 2026.
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article
- Methodology
- The best wealth planners in 2026: some names to know
- The best wealth planners in 2026: 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.
Best wealth planners: some names to know
Ola Adeosun
- Focus: Entrepreneurial families
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: LGT Wealth Management
Ola Adeosun is head of regional wealth planning and family governance at LGT Wealth Management, helping HNW and UHNW entrepreneurial families navigate their business, ownership and family structures.
Many of Adeosun’s clients are UHNWs who have multigenerational intentions with regards to the transfer of their wealth. ‘It’s not as straightforward and simple as establishing the right structures to transition wealth,’ he tells Spear’s. Rather, he works with families on next-generation education and engagement, discussing roles and responsibilities in relation to wealth and business to ultimately develop a long-term strategy that accounts for each family’s unique dynamics.
Read Ola Adeosun’s full profile on Spears500.com
Jeremy Hoyland
- Focus: Total client care
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: HFMC Wealth
HFMC Wealth began with a simple but powerful vision that Jeremy Hoyland wrote down back in 1986: a wish to build ‘the highest-quality financial management business in the country, based around the principle of total client care’.
Today, Hoyland prides himself on being a ‘planning-led firm’. He tells Spear’s: ‘I think what clients really believe in and engage with is the fact that we’re very focused on understanding their fundamental financial objectives, and then build a flexible planning environment, where we can work with them to establish their priorities as they shift.’ All manner of (U)HNWs approach the firm, from private equity professionals to barristers and even film directors.
Read Jeremy Hoyland’s full profile on Spears500.com
Sophie Dworetzsky
- Focus: Wealth protection
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Lombard Odier
Sophie Dworetzsky joined Lombard Odier as head of wealth planning UK in September 2025, building upon a career that includes roles at two of the country’s leading private client law firms: Charles Russell Speechlys, where she was a partner for six years, and Withers, where she spent over 15 years.
Her practice spans wealth structuring, succession planning, international governance and asset protection – the last of which is a constant thread running through her conversations with clients. ‘People are always worried about financial predators and asset protection,’ she tells Spear’s.
Read Sophie Dworetzsky’s full profile on Spears500.com
Chris Allen
- Focus: Intergenerational planning
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Arbuthnot Latham
Chris Allen is head of wealth planning at Arbuthnot Latham, advising clients on all aspects of their business and personal wealth. This includes investment strategy, retirement planning and inheritance tax planning, as well as wealth protection.
‘We want to give true intergenerational planning, not just looking at one person and the money they have in their bank account,’ Allen tells Spear’s. ‘It’s about looking at their whole family, looking left and right at their family tree, and up and down.’
Arbuthnot Latham, which won UK Private Bank of the Year at the 2025 Spear’s Awards, attracts entrepreneurs – whether they are building wealth or have recently exited their business – and professionals, and is well equipped to advise those with an international element to their lives.
Read Chris Allen’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best wealth planners in 2026: 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.
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