Digital assets are moving closer to mainstream wealth-management conversations in Malaysia, but easier access does not make them suitable for every investor. For financial advisers, the more difficult questions concern allocation, volatility, liquidity, governance, and whether adding a new asset class changes the risk profile of an otherwise diversified portfolio.
In this TNGlobal Q&A, we sought insights from Liew Ooi Hann, founder and CEO of Halogen Capital, a Securities Commission Malaysia-listed Digital Investment Manager. Liew has around two decades of experience in financial services and previously co-founded Jirnexu, the company behind Malaysian financial comparison platform RinggitPlus. A CFA charterholder and Certified Financial Planner, he began his career at Barclays Capital in London and now leads Halogen’s work in regulated digital-asset investment products.
Liew discusses how advisers should approach digital assets within multi-asset portfolios, including suitability, allocation limits, rebalancing, governance, and client communication. He argues that as platforms make a wider range of investments easier to access, the adviser’s role increasingly shifts from providing access to providing context, discipline, and appropriate risk management.
How are Malaysian financial advisers seeing client attitudes toward multi-asset portfolios evolve, particularly as digital assets become part of the investment conversation?
The shift we are seeing is mostly about familiarity. A few years ago, digital assets sat in the “too new to touch” category for many investors. But that is changing.
More people are treating them the way earlier generations came to treat internet and technology companies: unfamiliar at first, then gradually understood as a real part of how the economy is moving. As clients become more educated, the questions move from “is this legitimate?” to “how much of this belongs in my portfolio?”
When exposure becomes available through familiar, regulated structures, it lowers the barrier to entry and makes the asset class feel like part of the normal investment universe rather than something separate.
We see this shift in our own business. Halogen manages around RM450 million in assets on behalf of institutions and individuals, which we see as reflecting growing demand for regulated, professionally managed access to the asset class.
When an adviser considers adding crypto or other digital assets to a client portfolio, how should suitability and risk profiling differ from the approach used for more traditional asset classes?
The fundamental principles of suitability should remain the same. Advisers still need to understand the client’s objectives, financial position, and risk appetite before determining an appropriate portfolio allocation.
With digital assets, however, there is an additional layer to consider because of their higher volatility and different risk characteristics compared with more traditional asset classes.
The question is not only whether a client is comfortable holding digital assets, but how much exposure the overall portfolio can reasonably absorb without moving beyond the client’s intended risk profile.
In Halogen’s portfolios, each range is set against measurable inputs: the client’s stated objectives, risk appetite, liquidity needs, and investment horizon, together with the volatility profile of the underlying digital assets. Digital-asset exposure is capped at 15 percent across the profiles, keeping it as a satellite allocation rather than a core holding.
What are some of the biggest challenges advisers face when trying to incorporate digital assets into an otherwise diversified portfolio, particularly around allocation, volatility, liquidity, and rebalancing?
One of the biggest challenges is getting the allocation right in the first place. Advisers need to determine how much digital-asset exposure is appropriate within the broader portfolio while accounting for its higher volatility and how it interacts with other asset classes.
Significant price movements can cause digital assets to become a much larger proportion of a portfolio than originally intended, potentially changing the portfolio’s overall risk profile.
The second challenge is the operational complexity that comes with managing more asset classes. Clients increasingly want diversified, multi-asset portfolios and access to those investments through an adviser they already trust, but offering a broader range of asset classes also means more monitoring, reporting, and portfolio management for the adviser.
The third is ongoing rebalancing. Keeping a portfolio at its intended weights means reviewing and adjusting allocations as markets move. Done properly across many clients, this can become a significant amount of work and is difficult to sustain manually.
Having the right portfolio-management infrastructure can help advisers maintain allocation discipline without adding a disproportionate operational burden.
From a governance perspective, what safeguards should regulated firms have in place before allowing advisers to recommend or facilitate exposure to digital assets?
A regulated firm should operate within clear regulatory, compliance, and governance frameworks covering who the investment is appropriate for, what level of exposure is permissible, and how that exposure will be monitored over time.
This should start with a robust risk-profiling assessment to understand the client’s risk appetite, followed by a structured onboarding process so clients understand what they are investing in and the risks involved before any exposure is introduced.
Firms should also have defined investment mandates, exposure limits, ongoing monitoring, and clear rebalancing mechanisms.
Advisers should meet applicable licensing requirements and have sufficient competency in digital assets to explain their characteristics and risks accurately to clients.
Ultimately, the objective should not simply be to provide access to digital assets, but to ensure that any exposure is introduced and managed deliberately and consistently, while remaining aligned with the client’s objectives.
Part of a firm’s responsibility is also to help clients understand the importance of accessing digital assets through licensed, regulated entities rather than unregulated channels.
Are there particular client profiles, objectives, or market conditions where crypto exposure may be less appropriate?
Digital-asset exposure may be less appropriate for clients with a lower tolerance for volatility, a shorter-term investment horizon, or a strong requirement for capital preservation or near-term liquidity.
It may also be less appropriate where a client already has substantial exposure to other higher-risk assets. The adviser needs to consider whether adding digital assets improves the overall portfolio relative to the client’s objectives rather than treating digital-asset exposure as an objective in itself.
We would also caution against making allocation decisions purely on short-term market sentiment, such as demand that emerges following a sharp market run-up.
Market conditions can influence risk, but suitability should ultimately be determined by the client’s circumstances and the portfolio’s intended objectives.
There should therefore be no default allocation appropriate for every client. The appropriate level of exposure, if any, should be determined through the same disciplined assessment of risk, objectives, and portfolio context that advisers apply to other investment decisions.
As investment platforms give advisers access to a wider range of asset classes, how does the adviser’s responsibility evolve when it comes to explaining risk, managing expectations, and avoiding overexposure to newer investment categories?
Greater access to investment products also creates greater responsibility for advisers to help clients understand what they are actually taking on.
The adviser’s role should not simply be to provide access to more asset classes. It is to help clients understand how each asset fits within their broader financial plan, what risks it introduces, and whether those risks are appropriate for their objectives.
This becomes particularly important with newer asset classes, where clients may form expectations based on recent performance or market narratives. Advisers need to distinguish between investment rationale and market excitement and ensure that portfolio decisions remain grounded in the client’s long-term objectives.
As the investment universe expands, we believe the value of the adviser increasingly lies in providing context, discipline, and ongoing guidance.
Technology can make access and execution more efficient, but it does not replace the need for sound judgment, clear communication, and appropriate risk management.
How do you see Malaysia’s wealth and financial advisory market evolving over the next few years as traditional investment products and digital assets increasingly sit within the same portfolio ecosystem?
We expect the distinction between traditional and digital assets to become less pronounced as investment platforms and regulated wealth-management solutions become more sophisticated.
Convergence will be seen not just in portfolios, but also in infrastructure and the overall ecosystem. Custody, settlement, and issuer risk will increasingly become ordinary parts of due diligence.
The more meaningful development will be the continued move toward multi-asset portfolio construction, where the focus is less on whether an asset is traditional or digital and more on the role it serves within the portfolio.
This will require advisers and investment managers to become increasingly disciplined around asset allocation, risk management, and portfolio governance.
Technology will also play an important role in making sophisticated portfolio strategies more accessible to a broader range of investors. At the same time, regulation and investor education will remain important as the market develops.
For advisers, this creates an opportunity to move beyond product selection toward a more holistic approach to wealth management.
Ultimately, clients are not looking for access to every available asset class. They are looking for portfolios appropriate to their objectives, risk tolerance, and circumstances. Advisers who can combine broader investment access with sound portfolio discipline and clear guidance will be well positioned as the market evolves.
Editor’s note: This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity, length, and factual precision. TNGlobal checked key publicly available factual claims and, where necessary, omitted or qualified a small number of figures that could not be independently corroborated. The substance of the interviewee’s responses has been preserved.
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