In Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia, standard retail investor protection laws do not apply to special categories of individual investors, which are broadly based on wealth or income. Prospectuses are not required for the sale of financial products to these investors and they do not have the full benefit of advice relating to the suitability of these products. However, with the increasing complexity of products and potentially unregulated alternative investments such as crypto-assets, this legal framework is increasingly being debated and challenged.We explore the rationale behind the special categories, the implications of falling into these categories and the appropriateness of the current framework. We argue that the existing criteria are anachronistic and inappropriate. Instead, all individuals making investment decisions should have the benefit of a rating framework that is based on both complexity and risks and be subject to a suitability test in the case of complex products.