Private equity and private markets
Access is the easy part. Fit and sizing are the work.
Individual investors reach private equity almost entirely through funds, and legal eligibility begins at $1 million of net worth outside the home. Past that gate, the fund’s structure decides the experience: when money goes in, when it can come out, and what it costs along the way. We evaluate the structure, size the allocation inside the plan, and coordinate the tax and liquidity consequences with your CPA.
The situation
The offers arrive before the plan for them exists.
Private equity, venture, infrastructure, and other private market funds were an institutional conversation for decades. Semi-liquid structures, lower minimums, and a growing set of platforms have changed that, and households that clear the accredited line now see offerings from custodians, platforms, and friends of friends, often within months of a sale or a vest.
The offerings are legitimate more often than not. The difficulty is that each arrives on its own terms, and the terms do the real work: how capital is called, when it is returned, what the fee layers add up to, and what the fund reports in between. Two funds with the same label can behave very differently for the household holding them.
This page is the method. It covers the access routes and what each asks of a household, the mechanics that shape the experience, the three eligibility tiers, and how we size a private allocation so that its illiquidity never matters and its worst case is survivable. Income-oriented private strategies have their own page; buying shares of an individual private company is covered under pre-IPO opportunities.
Why it’s complex
Five decisions a private allocation forces
Which access route
An evergreen fund is fully funded at purchase and offers periodic repurchases. A drawdown fund calls committed capital over years and returns it over more. A feeder pools smaller commitments into one of those, with a fee of its own. The route shapes liquidity, cost, and paperwork before a manager is chosen.
How we frame alternativesThe J-curve and capital calls
A drawdown fund charges fees from the first close and often carries early holdings at or below cost, so the account shows a decline before any gain. Meanwhile the uncalled balance must sit somewhere safe, because a call that lands in a bad public-market year cannot be met by selling into it.
Why timing still mattersWhat liquidity really means
Evergreen funds advertise quarterly liquidity, but each repurchase is capped, often at a small share of the fund, and can be suspended. Drawdown funds offer none by design. The honest assumption is that the money is unavailable for the life of the fund, and the plan is built as if that were true.
Interval and tender-offer fundsAdding up the fee layers
A management fee, a share of profits above a preferred return, fund expenses, and sometimes a platform or feeder fee on top, with a second layer of each inside a fund of funds. Every layer is disclosed somewhere in the documents. Totaling them, and asking what is left after all of them, is the household’s job and ours.
Diversified or overengineered?Manager dispersion
Two index funds tracking the same market land close together. Two private funds in the same category can land far apart, because each is a separate set of deals chosen by a separate team. The specific manager matters more than the category, which is why diligence is the work rather than a formality.
Why selectivity mattersThe routes
Three ways individual investors reach private markets
Compared at the structure level. Every fund’s own documents govern, and the differences between two funds on the same row can be larger than the differences between rows.
| Route | How capital moves | Liquidity | Fee layers | Typical eligibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evergreen or semi-liquid fund Registered interval and tender-offer funds, or a private evergreen vehicle | Fully funded at purchase; ongoing subscriptions, usually monthly or quarterly | Periodic repurchase offers, capped each period (registered interval funds: 5–25% of shares per offer); the fund may suspend or prorate in stress | Management fee, fund expenses, sometimes an incentive fee; a second layer of each if the fund invests in other private funds | Varies. Some registered funds accept any investor; private versions generally require accredited or qualified-purchaser status, and incentive fees require a qualified client |
| Drawdown fund The traditional private equity or venture limited partnership | A commitment at closing, called in installments as the manager invests, usually over the first several years; distributions as holdings are sold | None by design. A stated term, commonly around ten years plus extensions; early exit only through a secondary sale at a negotiated price, if the agreement permits one | Management fee (often on committed capital during the investment period), carried interest above a preferred return, fund expenses | Qualified purchasers under Section 3(c)(7), or no more than 100 beneficial owners under Section 3(c)(1), who in practice are accredited |
| Feeder or access fund A pooled vehicle that aggregates smaller commitments into one drawdown fund | Called on the underlying fund’s schedule, or fully funded up front with the feeder holding the balance | Same as the underlying fund: none, for its full term | The underlying fund’s fees plus the feeder’s administrative or platform fee, and in some cases a second carry | Accredited or qualified purchaser, depending on how the feeder is organized |
Direct investment in a single private company, whether through a secondary market or a special-purpose vehicle, is a different decision with its own information gaps and transfer restrictions. We cover it on the pre-IPO and qualified investor page.
Sources: 17 CFR §230.501(a)(5)–(6); SEC Release IA-6961 (Apr. 28, 2026); 15 U.S.C. §80a-2(a)(51); 15 U.S.C. §80a-3(c)(1), (c)(7); 17 CFR §270.23c-3; SEC, Private placements – Rule 506(b).
Our approach
How we decide, in the order we work
We are fee-only and receive nothing from any fund, platform, or sponsor. Our work is the evaluation, the sizing, and the coordination. The household’s plan, not the offering, sets the terms.
Name the job in one sentence
Growth the public markets do not supply, a return stream that moves differently from the rest of the portfolio, or a market the household cannot otherwise reach. If the sentence will not write, the answer is no, however good the presentation. A role that turns out to be income belongs with the alternative income toolkit instead.
Test the balance sheet
We total what is already illiquid: business interests, real estate, restricted stock, existing fund commitments. Then what the next ten years will draw, and whether a bad public-market year would force a sale to meet a capital call. A private allocation that fits on paper still fails if the household cannot hold it through a rough stretch.
Underwrite the structure, then the manager
We read the offering documents for the terms that decide the experience: fee layers at every level, preferred return and carry, how capital is called and returned, repurchase language and gates, valuation policy, key-person provisions. Then the manager: the team through a full cycle, alignment we can verify in writing, and how this fund differs from the last one they raised.
Size to the plan, then to the calendar
The commitment is sized so that its total loss would not change the plan and its illiquidity never matters. For drawdown funds we stage commitments across vintage years rather than writing one large check, and we hold uncalled capital in a reserve the plan already counts. The public portfolio is rebalanced around the private sleeve, not the other way round.
Coordinate taxes and keep the ledger
Most private funds are partnerships. Schedule K-1s often arrive after the April deadline, extensions become routine, and a fund with holdings in several states can add state filings. We track calls, distributions, and marks, coordinate character and timing with your CPA, and review the allocation in our Quarterly Rounds as public markets move it off target.
The work
What you’ll work through with us
- A written role statement for any private allocation, agreed before offerings are reviewed
- A liquidity map: what is already illiquid, what the next decade draws, and the reserve for uncalled commitments
- A structure review of each offering: fee layers, carry and preferred return, call and distribution mechanics, repurchase terms and gates
- Manager diligence notes kept on file, with the questions asked and the answers received
- Eligibility confirmation against the accredited, qualified-client, and qualified-purchaser tests
- A sizing recommendation and, for drawdown funds, a vintage-year commitment schedule
- K-1 and state-filing coordination with your CPA, and a running ledger of calls, distributions, and marks
- Quarterly review of the allocation against the plan, with rebalancing when public markets move it off target
Private market work at the firm is led by Theo Halbardier, CFP®, CIMA®, CAIA®, the firm’s founder. The CAIA® curriculum is the diligence discipline for private equity, private credit, and real assets, which is why the structure review comes before the pitch. We are fee-only: no commissions, no product sales. About Theo
Questions
Common questions about private equity and private markets
How do individual investors invest in private equity?
Almost always through a fund rather than a direct deal: an evergreen or semi-liquid fund that is fully funded at purchase, a traditional drawdown fund that calls committed capital over several years, or a feeder fund that pools smaller commitments into one of those. Each route carries its own eligibility test, liquidity terms, and fee layers, and the choice of route matters as much as the choice of manager.
What is the minimum to invest in private equity?
There is no single minimum. Legal eligibility begins at accredited investor status: $1 million of net worth excluding the primary residence, or income above $200,000 ($300,000 joint) in each of the last two years. Funds set their own minimums above that, and many private funds require qualified purchaser status, $5 million in investments. The more useful minimum is the one the plan sets: an amount whose total loss would not change the household’s outcome.
What is the J-curve in private equity?
The pattern of a drawdown fund’s cash flows and reported value in its early years. Capital is called in installments, management fees and fund expenses are charged from the start, and early holdings are often carried at or below cost, so the account shows a decline before any gain appears. Distributions usually arrive in later years as holdings are sold. The household holds the uncalled balance safely in the meantime and expects nothing back for a while.
What is a capital call?
A request from a drawdown fund for part of the amount an investor committed. Investors commit at closing but fund the commitment in pieces as the manager finds investments, usually over the first several years, on notice measured in days. Missing a call carries penalties set in the fund agreement, which can include forfeiting part of the interest, so the uncalled balance should sit in a reserve that nothing else depends on.
Can I get my money out of a private equity fund?
Usually not on your schedule. Drawdown funds return capital as holdings are sold over the fund’s term, commonly around ten years; leaving early means a secondary sale at a negotiated price, if the agreement permits one. Evergreen and semi-liquid funds offer periodic repurchases, but the amount is capped each period and the fund can suspend them in stress. We plan on the money being unavailable for the life of the fund.
What is a qualified client, and how is it different from accredited?
A qualified client is the SEC’s test for who may be charged a performance fee by a registered adviser: at least $1.4 million under management with the adviser, or a net worth above $2.7 million, for contracts entered on or after June 29, 2026 (Release IA-6961). Accredited status is the lower gate for buying private offerings at all; qualified purchaser, $5 million in investments, is the higher one many private funds require.
How much of a portfolio should be in private markets?
There is no standard percentage, and we distrust any that arrives attached to an offering. The size comes out of the plan: how much is already illiquid, what the next ten years must fund, and how large a loss the household could absorb without changing its outcome. Commitments to drawdown funds are staged across vintage years, and the total is reviewed each quarter as public markets move it.
Reviewed by Theo Halbardier, CFP® · Updated September 2026 · Figures current for 2026
Bring the offering, or bring the question.
The first conversation is 30 minutes. If a fund has been offered to you, send the documents ahead and we will read them before we meet.
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