How to Access Private Equity as an Individual Investor

The Democratization of Private Equity

For most of the asset class's history, private equity operated behind closed doors. Institutional investors and family offices wrote multi-million-dollar checks to gain access to top-quartile fund managers at firms like Blackstone, KKR, and Apollo. The typical LP commitment was $5 million to $25 million, with a 10-year lock-up period and no redemption rights. Individual investors were almost entirely excluded, not because the returns were inadequate, but because the structural requirements of blind-pool fund investing demanded large, patient capital commitments that retail investors could not meet.

The landscape began to shift meaningfully around 2020. Several converging forces drove the change. First, major PE firms recognized that the roughly $30 trillion sitting in individual investor accounts represented an enormous untapped source of capital. Blackstone, for instance, launched its first product designed for individual investors through the wealth management channel, and by 2024 its private wealth business was raising more than $20 billion annually. Second, regulatory developments expanded who could participate. The SEC broadened the accredited investor definition in 2020 to include individuals with certain professional certifications, and the continued maturation of Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) and Regulation A+ offerings opened doors for non-accredited investors. Third, technology platforms emerged to aggregate smaller commitments and handle the administrative complexity that had previously made small allocations uneconomical.

The result is a market that looks fundamentally different from what existed even five years ago. Interval funds now manage hundreds of billions in assets from individual investors. Secondary market platforms facilitate transactions in private company shares at minimums of $10,000 or less. Publicly traded PE ETFs provide daily-liquid exposure to the asset class with no accreditation requirement and no minimum beyond the price of a single share. The options have multiplied, but so has the complexity of choosing between them.

Each access method carries different trade-offs in terms of fees, liquidity, diversification, and the degree to which the investment actually captures the illiquidity premium that has historically driven PE outperformance. Understanding these trade-offs is essential. Buying a PE ETF on a public exchange, for example, provides convenient access but exposes you to public market correlation in a way that a locked-up fund commitment does not. Conversely, a 10-year fund lock-up delivers the truest PE exposure but demands capital and patience that many individuals cannot afford. The sections that follow break down each method in detail so you can make an informed decision about which path aligns with your goals.

Access Methods at a Glance

The table below provides a high-level comparison of all eight primary methods for accessing private equity as an individual investor. Each method is explored in depth in the sections that follow.

Data reflects publicly available information as of early 2026. Minimums, fees, and accreditation requirements may change. Always confirm current terms directly with the provider.

Secondary Market Platforms

Secondary market platforms allow accredited investors to buy and sell shares in private companies outside of the traditional fundraising process. These platforms match sellers, typically employees and early investors seeking liquidity, with buyers who want exposure to specific late-stage private companies. The secondary market for private company shares has grown into a multi-billion-dollar ecosystem, with annual transaction volumes exceeding $100 billion globally by 2025.

The mechanics are straightforward. A seller lists shares at a specified price, or indicates willingness to sell within a price range. Buyers browse available companies and submit indications of interest. The platform facilitates price negotiation, handles accreditation verification, manages compliance with securities regulations, and coordinates the share transfer, which typically requires the issuing company's approval through a Right of First Refusal (ROFR) process. Settlement can take anywhere from two to eight weeks depending on the company's responsiveness.

For detailed head-to-head comparisons of these platforms, see our platform comparison tool and in-depth platform reviews.

Interval Funds & Semi-Liquid Vehicles

Interval funds represent one of the most significant innovations in PE access for individual investors. Registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, these funds offer periodic redemption windows, typically quarterly, where investors can request to sell back a portion of their shares. Unlike traditional PE funds that lock up capital for a decade, interval funds provide a middle ground between full illiquidity and daily trading. Many interval funds do not require accredited investor status, making them accessible to a broad range of individuals.

The trade-off for this enhanced liquidity is that interval funds may not fully replicate the return profile of traditional PE. Fund managers must maintain a liquidity sleeve, a portion of the portfolio held in cash or liquid securities, to meet potential redemption requests. This cash drag can reduce overall returns compared to a fully invested PE fund. Additionally, during periods of heavy redemption demand, interval funds may pro-rate redemptions, meaning investors may not be able to exit their full position in a single quarter.

For a deeper analysis of how interval funds work, their regulatory structure, and how to evaluate them, see our comprehensive interval fund guide.

Publicly Traded PE & ETFs

The simplest path to private equity exposure is through publicly traded securities. Two primary approaches exist: ETFs that track indices of publicly listed private equity companies, and direct investment in the stocks of PE firms themselves. These options require no accreditation, have no investment minimums beyond the share price, and offer daily liquidity through standard brokerage accounts. The trade-off is that you are not investing directly in private equity deals but rather in the companies that manage PE capital.

Crowdfunding & Reg CF Platforms

Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF), established under the JOBS Act and expanded in subsequent SEC rulemakings, allows both accredited and non-accredited investors to invest in private companies through registered platforms. The maximum amount a company can raise under Reg CF is $5 million per year, and individual investment limits are capped based on the investor's annual income and net worth. While these platforms provide the lowest barriers to entry, the companies available tend to be early-stage startups with higher risk profiles than the mature, late-stage companies found on secondary platforms.

It is important to distinguish crowdfunding from traditional private equity. PE firms acquire controlling or significant minority stakes in established businesses with proven revenue and cash flow. Crowdfunding platforms typically offer equity in pre-revenue or early-revenue startups. The risk of total loss is substantially higher, and the timeline to any liquidity event, whether an acquisition, IPO, or secondary sale, is typically longer and less certain. That said, crowdfunding provides genuine private company equity ownership and represents the most accessible entry point for investors without accreditation or significant capital.

Feeder Funds & Institutional Platforms

Feeder funds occupy a unique position in the PE access landscape. They aggregate capital from multiple individual investors into a single vehicle that then invests in an underlying institutional PE fund. This structure allows individuals to access top-tier fund managers, names like KKR, Warburg Pincus, Thoma Bravo, and Vista Equity, who would otherwise require $5 million to $25 million minimum commitments. Feeder fund minimums typically range from $50,000 to $200,000, a substantial reduction though still significant for most individual investors.

The primary drawback of feeder funds is the additional fee layer. The feeder fund manager charges its own management fee and potentially its own carried interest, which sits on top of the underlying PE fund's standard 2% management fee and 20% carried interest. This double fee structure means that a feeder fund investor might pay a total of 2.5-3.5% in annual management fees and 20-25% in total performance fees, compared to the 2-and-20 paid by a direct LP. Over a 10-year fund life, this additional fee drag can reduce net returns by several percentage points cumulatively.

Direct Co-Investment

Co-investment refers to investing directly alongside a general partner (GP) in a specific portfolio company deal, rather than committing capital to the GP's blind-pool fund. When a PE firm identifies an acquisition target that exceeds the capital available in its main fund, or when the firm wants to reduce concentration risk, it offers the excess allocation to its existing LPs and select co-investors. These co-investment opportunities have become increasingly popular because they typically carry reduced fees or no fees at all.

The fee advantage is substantial. Traditional PE funds charge 2% annual management fees and 20% carried interest on profits. Co-investments frequently carry no management fee and either zero or significantly reduced carried interest, often 5-10% instead of 20%. This fee savings flows directly to the investor's net return. Industry data suggests that co-investments have produced comparable or superior gross returns to fund investments while generating meaningfully higher net returns due to the fee differential.

However, co-investing requires significant deal evaluation capability. Unlike a fund commitment where the GP makes all investment decisions, a co-investor must evaluate individual deals, often under tight timelines. GPs typically provide a deal memo and limited due diligence period, sometimes as short as two to four weeks. The co-investor must assess the target company, the deal structure, the valuation, and the GP's value creation plan independently. This demands either personal investment expertise or access to advisors with private equity transaction experience.

Access to co-investment opportunities is the primary barrier for individual investors. GPs typically offer co-investments first to their largest LPs, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and endowments that commit $100 million or more to the main fund. Individual investors can access co-investments through wealth management platforms that aggregate co-investment deal flow, family office networks, or by building direct relationships with GP firms over time. Minimum check sizes for co-investments typically start at $250,000 and can exceed $1 million for larger deals.

Fund of Funds

A fund of funds (FoF) invests across multiple PE funds managed by different GPs, providing diversification across strategies (buyout, growth, venture), geographies, vintage years, and deal sizes within a single commitment. For an individual investor who can meet the minimum but cannot write $5 million checks to five or six different GP funds, a fund of funds provides an efficient way to build a diversified PE portfolio through a single vehicle.

Major fund of funds managers include Adams Street Partners, HarbourVest Partners, and Hamilton Lane. These firms have decades of experience selecting and monitoring PE fund managers and bring institutional relationships that provide access to oversubscribed, top-performing funds that would otherwise be closed to new investors. Hamilton Lane, for example, evaluates hundreds of PE funds annually and invests in a select group, leveraging its proprietary database of fund performance data spanning thousands of funds over decades.

The cost of this diversification and access is an additional fee layer. A typical fund of funds charges approximately 1% annual management fee plus 5-10% carried interest on profits, which sits on top of the underlying PE funds' standard 2% management fee and 20% carry. This results in a double fee structure that can meaningfully reduce net returns compared to investing directly in individual PE funds. Over a fund lifecycle, the cumulative impact of the FoF fee layer can reduce net returns by 2-4 percentage points, depending on gross performance and fee terms.

Fund of funds minimums have come down in recent years. While some flagship programs still require $1 million or more, certain vehicles and platforms now offer FoF access at $100,000 to $500,000. For investors with the capital to meet these thresholds but lacking the expertise or relationships to select individual PE fund managers, a fund of funds can provide a professionally managed, diversified PE allocation. The key is ensuring that the FoF manager has a strong track record of fund selection, because the additional fee layer means the underlying fund picks must deliver above-average returns for the investor to capture meaningful net performance.

How to Choose the Right Access Method

With eight distinct methods available, selecting the right PE access path requires an honest assessment of your financial profile and investment objectives. The following framework walks through the key decision criteria.