The 2022 edition of The Spear’s 500 is here. It is the definitive guide to the top private client advisers, wealth managers, lawyers and service providers for HNW individuals, writes Edwin Smith
This edition of The Spear’s 500 is, in some respects, the same as all those that have gone before. It remains the indispensable guide to the top private client advisers, wealth managers, lawyers and service providers for HNW individuals – undoubtedly the leader in its field.
But this year’s print guide – which you can buy here – is different in one very important respect: it includes more profiles than ever. Some 1,946 advisers are included this time.
What’s more, the Spear’s 500 database now overflows our physical pages: the total number of advisers profiled on spears500.com has reached 2,463 – and continues to climb.
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We divide the advisers and service-providers we profile into eight categories: Business & Entrepreneurship, Health & Wellness, Home & Design, Legal, Lifestyle and Passion Investments, Property Advisers, Tax & Offshore and Wealth & Investing. Each of these categories is divided further, into more specific sub-categories.
As editor, I see evidence of the 500's influence on the world of wealth on a regular basis. One of the standout advisers listed in the pages of the guide – a consigliere to international UHNW families – told me recently that he consults it every single day of his working life. Another – one of the Top Ten UHNW Wealth Managers – described to me the way that he and his colleagues use it when their blue-chip firm brings a new UHNW client on board. The Spear's Research Unit's authoritative four-tiered rankings help users to navigate the guide.
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They begin building a team around the client, which, naturally, includes several advisers within their own organisation. But if specific outside expertise – for example, that of an accountant with knowledge of the US tax system, a security consultant, or a francophone family lawyer – is required, The Spear’s 500 is the first port of call.
Of course, the strategic way that copies of the book are distributed – to those who are likely to find it most useful – means that it is often spotted in private members clubs, the libraries of stately homes, or aboard yachts moored in the Mediterranean. Now in its eighth edition, The Spear’s 500 has become a fixture in the world of private clients and in the lives of UHNWs around the globe.
This year, the make-up of the individual profiles has been developed. Each one now begins with the ‘Spear’s Review’. This represents our own editorial and research teams’ view of the adviser and their practice. As such, it is wholly independent.
Some of the profiles also include an additional element: the ‘Adviser Profile’. This supplementary space is afforded to our partners and is an opportunity for them to include further information about an individual and their particular strengths, skills and specialisms. This content is provided by the firms or the individuals themselves.
Spears500.com provides access to our growing digital database. The site allows users to filter data-backed profiles according to advisers’ location, ranking, expertise, client types and other attributes. This makes it possible to zero in on those who fulfill the necessary requirements.
Later this year, do look out for the launch of our redesigned and refreshed editorial website – a new digital home for Spear’s journalism. This is all supplemented by a new podcast, our live events, email newsletter and, of course, the quarterly print magazine, which remains a totally unique proposition. Taken together, it all means that Spear’s covers the world of wealth like nobody else.
