The wealth of UHNWs has become increasingly complex to manage. In response to geopolitical tension, market volatility and shifts in the global economy, many wealthy families have spread their assets across multiple jurisdictions and diversified into a broader range of asset classes than ever before.
For today’s wealth managers, preserving capital is no longer simply a matter of balancing portfolios; it is about helping clients navigate an increasingly fragmented world while ensuring their wealth can endure for generations.
[See also: The Spear’s Wealth Management Indices 2026]
Trends in 2026
Bespoke approaches
‘Every client and family is totally different, and you have to adapt, in all respects, to their needs and concerns,’ says Maurice Ephrati, co-founder of Bedrock Group. ‘You cannot put them in a box, which makes my job fascinating and obviously very complex.’
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As a result, the role of the UHNW adviser has evolved into something far more holistic than traditional portfolio management. The best wealth managers act as long-term strategic partners, helping clients protect and grow their assets while also advising on succession planning, tax efficiency, philanthropy and governance. By developing close personal relationships with their clients, advisers are better able to understand their appetite for risk, the sectors and themes they wish to invest in and the legacy they hope to create.
[See also: Peers rival wealth managers as succession advisers to the next generation]
Playing the long game
Long-term investing has become a particularly important focus. Unlike most investors, many UHNWs do not face immediate liquidity pressures, allowing them to take a more patient approach to capital allocation. This has fuelled growing interest in private markets, infrastructure, venture capital and thematic investments designed to deliver durable returns over decades rather than quarters.
Alongside this, families are increasingly looking to structure their wealth in ways that mitigate geopolitical and regulatory risk while ensuring a smooth transfer of assets to younger generations.
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Explore the other rankings within the 2026 Spear’s Wealth Management Indices:
- Best HNW Wealth Managers
- Best Wealth Planners
- 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
That transition is itself reshaping the industry. ‘When wealth transitions from the older generation to the new, [that generation] has a nuanced approach as to what they want to do, and they often can’t see the wood for the trees,’ says Bandish Gudka, partner at LGT Wealth Management. Younger inheritors are often more globally minded, more focused on sustainability and impact, and more willing to challenge traditional approaches to investing and governance.
Global diversification
At the same time, advisers are increasingly being asked to provide seamless international support as wealthy families become ever more mobile. ‘Clients are becoming more and more international, so they need that seamless service across multiple jurisdictions,’ says Charlie Hoffman, managing director at HSBC Private Bank.
Against this backdrop, a new generation of advisers and multi-family offices is emerging alongside established private banks, offering increasingly bespoke services tailored to internationally minded clients. From entrepreneurial boutiques to global institutions, these firms are redefining what modern wealth management looks like, and setting the standard for how the world’s wealthiest families preserve and grow their fortunes.
Some of the leading names in UHNW wealth management feature in this year’s Index. Managing director of UBS’s wealth management division, Ashley Coombes, is a key name in ultra-wealthy asset management. Others include Charles Costa Duarte, managing director of Rothschild & Co and the UK CEO of Swiss private bank Lombard Odier, Mark Goddard, who enters our Index under the Top Flight ranking.
Regional outposts
This ranking of international power-players reflects the truly global nature of the industry. There are advisers based in London, Dubai and Switzerland.
Added to this year’s Index is Sam Leal, a director at Barclays Private Bank, who runs a small yet dedicated team focusing on Monaco-based individuals. Coutts executive director Nima Naghibi, who specialises in managing the wealth of UHNW Middle Eastern families, is also featured for the first time in this index.
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- Methodology
- Best UHNW wealth managers: some names to know
- Best UHNW wealth managers: 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 managers for ultra-high-net-worth individuals: some names to know
Aastha Gurbax
- Focus: Entrepreneurs and UHNWs
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: Goldman Sachs
At Goldman Sachs, Aastha Gurbax – who spent 13 years at J.P. Morgan Private Bank – focuses on offering her clientele a platform that is ‘semi-institutionalised and suited to retail and sophisticated clients alike’.She tells Spear’s that she spends considerable time growing her client book and ensuring clients’ wealth management needs are met.
‘We don’t come in as a part provider,’ she says. ‘We’re holistic wealth managers that can actively listen and help our clients take advantage of uncommon opportunities we have seen.’
Read Aastha Gurbax’s full profile on Spears500.com
Charlotte Bobroff
- Focus: Entrepreneurial clients
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: J.P. Morgan Private Bank
Charlotte Bobroff, J.P. Morgan Private Bank managing director and UHNW Wealth Manager of the Year at the 2023 Spear’s Awards, specialises in advising entrepreneurial clients in the consumer, retail and e-commerce sectors, as well as business owners and family offices in the UK.
A former relationship manager within Credit Suisse’s UK UHNW team, Bobroff joined the American bank in 2013 to build her book from scratch, working with clients and families who have ‘very sophisticated financial needs that require the scope and breadth’ of a firm the size of J.P. Morgan.
Read Charlotte Bobroff’s full profile on Spears500.com
Francesco Grosoli
- Focus: Preserving family wealth
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: CMB Monaco
When it comes to managing the wealth of UHNWs, CMB Monaco CEO Francesco Grosoli has a clear yet thorough approach.
‘Diversification, focus and discipline are probably the main principles to be used when ensuring a safe transfer of wealth,’ he tells Spear’s.
Working in the ultra-wealthy hotspot of Monaco, Grosoli notes that many of his firm’s clients have investments across the world: ‘Bear in mind that Monaco has residents from over 140 different countries,’ he says. ‘The Monaco market is diverse both in nationalities and the industries where their wealth originated.’
Read Francesco Grosoli’s full profile on Spears500.com
Paul Nixon
- Focus: US-nexus clients
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: LGT Wealth Management
Paul Nixon set up what is now LGT Wealth Management’s US division in 2012 and currently serves as CEO of this growing arm of the firm.
Nixon and his team advise US-connected clients – including successful business owners and families living in the UK or US – who are looking to establish offshore structures, understand their UK/US tax obligations or diversify their investments. He tells Spear’s that LGT has ‘boots on the ground’ in both the UK and the US, meaning it has ‘global expertise’ and the ability to ‘execute in a locally compliant manner’, adding that the US division is SEC licensed in the US and FCA registered in the UK.
Read Paul Nixon’s full profile on Spears500.com
Chris Ivey
- Focus: Sophisticated investors
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Cambridge Associates
Heading up Cambridge Associates’ well-regarded European private client team, Chris Ivey oversees investments on behalf of UHNWs and family offices with institutional-scale assets in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
The firm provides global investment management on a discretionary and non-discretionary basis. It has no pooled funds or model portfolios, instead creating each portfolio in a bottom-up fashion to meet client mandates. The firm’s independence, Ivey says, allows advisers to view the investment horizon ‘without any conflicts of interest’.
Read Chris Ivey’s full profile on Spears500.com
Khaled Said
- Focus: Investment advisory
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: Capital Generation Partners
When asked what he enjoys most about his job as managing partner of Capital Generation Partners, Khaled Said has a simple answer: ‘I work with an amazing group of people who are not only highly talented investors, but who really care about what we do for clients.’
The firm’s success, he tells Spear’s, lies in its ability to combine traditional practice with more entrepreneurial insights. ‘When we set up this firm, there was a pervading myth that the best investors worked only in megalithic institutions, and clients had to accept being just another number on a long list.
Read Khaled Said’s full profile on Spears500.com
Nick Atkinson
- Focus: Private banking and investment management
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: EFG Private Bank
‘I believe I am the very essence of a modern client relationship officer: proactive, adaptable and highly knowledgeable, as my annual performance and growing client base proves,’ EFG managing director Nick Atkinson tells Spear’s. A rising star in his field, Atkinson specialises in discretionary investment management and advisory services, as well as banking and credit offerings.
He is proud of the high-quality private banking services EFG provides to its clients, which include access to offshore booking centres and product specialists. This variety is particularly useful in helping his entrepreneurial clients achieve their ambitions and structure their wealth in an effective way.
Read Nick Atkinson’s full profile on Spears500.com
Bandish Gudka
- Focus: Navigating market volatility
- Ranking: Top Flight
- Firm: LGT Wealth Management
Bandish Gudka, a founding partner of LGT Wealth Management with more than 26 years of experience, serves as a trusted adviser to UHNWs, alongside his duties as investment manager and firm partner.
‘My view is that I should be running the money for the people whom I have a relationship with,’ Gudka tells Spear’s. With a book valued at over £1 billion, and many client relationships spanning generations, Gudka’s specialism lies in clients with landed wealth and businesses, who often also have offshore considerations.
Read Bandish Gudka’s full profile on Spears500.com
Best UHNW wealth managers: 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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With additional reporting by Christian Maddock
