40-something female entrepreneur-turned-asset owner who hit it big, how she manages 12 billion won… ‘Surprise’ [Young & Rich Portfolio]

"Entrepreneur clients who take high risk in their core business

Need to focus on volatility control and steady asset growth"

For founders who have achieved major success through business, wealth management becomes another challenge. Because they already take substantial risk in their business, managing financial assets requires prioritizing volatility control and stable cash flow over headline returns.

Ms. A, a woman in her early 40s who rapidly grew a lifestyle brand she founded, had similar concerns. She secured about 12 billion won in financial assets through a partial stake sale and dividend income, but her existing portfolio was concentrated in individual names centered on consumer and platform companies. With both her business and financial assets exposed to the same industry, the structure could amplify volatility.

With global equities recently rising to all-time highs, Ms. A wanted to review her asset mix and build a more stable wealth management framework. She needed to reduce the share of risky assets and expand a more stable asset base. Her previous portfolio was 30% safe assets and 70% risky assets; she reshuffled it to 60% safe assets and 40% risky assets.

Within safe assets, she added U.S. dollar assets and a U.S. intermediate-term Treasury exchange-traded fund (ETF). Dollar assets can provide a natural hedge if the exchange rate rises, while a Treasury ETF can target capital gains from higher bond prices when interest rates fall. She also used a fixed-rate pension insurance product to secure long-term cash flow while aiming for tax deferral benefits.

A gold ETF was included as a hedge against inflation and geopolitical risk. A money market fund (MMF) and cash were kept as liquidity to seize opportunities during market pullbacks.

Risk assets were rebuilt to reduce sector concentration and reflect global growth potential. She added a Nasdaq ETF and an S&P 500 ETF to capture the long-term growth of innovative technology companies and high-quality global firms. She also included some domestic KOSPI ETF exposure, considering both geographic diversification and tax-exempt benefits.

For the consumer-goods sector, where Ms. A has strong understanding, she gained indirect exposure through a global consumer-goods fund. This strategy used funds rather than single-stock bets to reduce sector concentration risk. Part of the capital was allocated to investments in unlisted startups to seek excess-return opportunities, but the weight was kept limited so as not to undermine overall portfolio stability.

The recent global macro backdrop also supports this approach. As commodity prices and inflation rise again, corporate profitability is improving. Global consumption and growth are also expected to recover gradually. However, global equities have already priced in a significant portion of the recovery narrative. In particular, the U.S. policy rate remains elevated and the labor market is showing signs of cooling. Analysts say that if inflation persists in this environment, market volatility could increase. With these factors in mind, she set a strategy to gradually reduce risky-asset exposure and shift toward a more defensive portfolio.

Kang Soo-jin, head of the Gold PB team at Hana Bank’s Yongsan PB Center, said, "Entrepreneur clients already take high risk in their core business, so financial assets should focus on volatility control and steady asset growth rather than maximizing returns," adding, "Because they need to keep investing for decades, a long-term asset growth strategy is more important than short-term performance." She added, "When equity valuations are high, it is necessary to manage the portfolio by reducing risky-asset exposure and then increasing it again when the market corrects."

Reporter Cho Mi-hyun