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The term private equity covers a wide range of investment structures. Buying shares of a listed firm like Blackstone, investing in a lower middle market acquisition through a private equity co-investment group like CapitalPad, and purchasing secondary shares in a private technology company are all forms of private equity investing. But what you actually own, how liquid it is, and what drives the return are very different in each case.
This guide breaks down five ways to access private equity investments as an individual investor, and the trade-offs that determine whether one or more of them belongs in your portfolio. Individual access to these structures is expanding fast: U.S. retail capital flowing into alternative investment structures reached $204 billion in 2025, more than double the $92 billion of 2023, according to Robert A. Stanger & Co. data cited by McKinsey.
Five distinct strategies give individual investors access to private equity, and each one produces a different ownership relationship, liquidity profile, and return driver. Choosing the wrong one for your objective is a structural mismatch, not just a style preference.
Three of the five are limited to accredited investors. Two, publicly traded PE firm stocks and publicly traded closed-end funds, are open to anyone with a standard brokerage account, regardless of net worth or income.
The first question is not the minimum investment. It is what you will own, who makes the investment decisions, and whether your return depends on how a business is operated or on what the public market will eventually pay.
Accredited investors can invest in private equity deal by deal through CapitalPad, a private equity co-investment group that gives access to lower middle market private equity investments, with full deal materials to review before committing and a $25,000 per-deal minimum.
Publicly traded closed-end funds that hold private company stakes are a newer, more volatile route. Their market price can move far above or below the value of the underlying holdings, so check the premium or discount to NAV before buying any of them.
Four dimensions separate the five strategies in ways that matter to an individual investor deciding how to approach private equity investing.
Ownership. What you own when you invest is the most important dimension. Does your investment give you direct equity in a specific business? A proportional interest in a diversified fund run by someone else? Or exposure to private equity economics through a publicly traded security whose price the market sets? These are fundamentally different ownership relationships, and they produce different investor experiences and outcomes.
Liquidity. Private equity has historically meant illiquid, long-term commitments, with capital locked for five to ten years until an underlying business is sold. That is not true of every strategy today. Publicly traded PE firm stocks and closed-end funds offer full intraday liquidity. Secondary platforms offer a partial-liquidity mechanism. Traditional fund commitments and direct acquisition investing stay illiquid for the duration of the hold.
Accredited investor requirement. Three of the five strategies are open only to accredited investors, meaning net worth above $1 million excluding a primary residence, or annual income above $200,000. Two, publicly traded PE firm stocks and publicly traded closed-end funds, are available to anyone with a standard brokerage account.
Return drivers. Some strategies deliver a result that closely mirrors the underlying assets you own. Others are driven by factors outside those businesses, such as public-market sentiment, market-capitalization dynamics, and premium-to-NAV movement. How closely your outcome tracks the actual operating companies varies meaningfully across the five.
These are general characterizations, and individual products within each strategy can vary. Confirm the specifics of any investment before committing capital.
What it is: You invest alongside a lead sponsor in the acquisition of a single operating business. You review the company's financials, the acquisition rationale, and the operator before committing any capital, and you hold equity in that specific business rather than a fund or pooled vehicle.
What you own: A direct equity interest in a privately held operating company, usually held through a special purpose vehicle (SPV). Your return comes from the company's performance over the hold period and the price at which it is eventually sold, typically three to seven years after the acquisition.
This is the most direct form of private equity access available to an individual investor. You know what you own, who runs it, what was paid for it, and the thesis behind the deal, because the underlying companies have real operating histories and financials to review before you commit. Deal supply in this segment runs deep: a record 12,856 lower middle market deals were brought to market in 2025, up 17.1% year over year, per Axial, a lower middle market deal network. The main trade-off is concentration, because each investment is one business, in one sector, run by one team.
CapitalPad is a private equity co-investment group for accredited investors that stands out among these five strategies for letting individuals invest in one private equity deal at a time, each reviewed in full before any capital is committed, at a $25,000 per-deal minimum and no annual management fee.
CapitalPad focuses on established, historically profitable operating companies in durable industries, generally those with $1 million to $7 million of EBITDA and $5 million to $30 million of enterprise value. Typical sectors include commercial and home services, healthcare services, light manufacturing, and specialty distribution. Before committing, investors review each opportunity's full deal materials: the target's operating history and financials, the sponsor's background, the acquisition rationale, and the transaction structure. Participating investors hold their position through a deal-specific SPV. CapitalPad co-invests alongside independent sponsors, pooling investor commitments with its own capital into a single vehicle for each transaction.
CapitalPad is not a blind-pool fund and not a publicly traded vehicle. Investors hold equity in the specific acquired company rather than a fund interest or a market-priced security.
Key features:
Direct equity in one private equity deal you reviewed
$25,000 minimum per deal
Full pre-commitment diligence: company financials, operator background, deal structure, and acquisition rationale
Focused on established, historically profitable operating companies, not startups or pre-revenue businesses
Typical hold period of 3 to 7 years
No annual management fee
Pricing: A one-time 1.5% administration fee when an investment is made, plus 20% carried interest after investors receive all of their capital back on that deal. There is no annual management fee.
Best suited for: Investors who want maximum visibility into what they own, prefer to evaluate each company individually before committing, and can hold capital for three to seven years without needing liquidity.
Not a fit for: Investors who may need liquidity within three years, or who want a diversified portfolio from a single commitment.
What it is: A registered investment advisor (RIA) with access to institutional fund distribution platforms places client capital into private equity fund strategies at minimums below direct fund access. The investor gains exposure to a manager-run portfolio of deals and does not select individual companies.
What you own: A proportional interest in a fund vehicle, either a traditional drawdown fund, a feeder fund that pools many individual investors into a single position, or an evergreen structure with periodic redemption windows. The fund manager makes every investment decision, and your return reflects the aggregate performance of the portfolio across many companies over the fund's life.
Access runs through feeder-fund technology platforms (iCapital, CAIS, and similar) that aggregate individual commitments and handle subscriptions and reporting, reducing minimums from the six figures or more typically required for direct fund access to low-to-mid five figures at the investor level. The strategies on offer are funds from large brand-name buyout and multi-strategy managers. This route requires a financial advisor relationship at a firm that uses these platforms, and self-directed investors cannot reach these channels on their own. Fees come in two layers: the underlying fund's management fee and carried interest, plus any advisory fee the RIA charges. Many evergreen and registered fund vehicles issue 1099 tax forms rather than K-1s.
Key features:
Exposure to institutional fund strategies at reduced minimums through feeder structures
Requires an RIA relationship at a firm that uses these distribution platforms
Evergreen vehicles may offer periodic redemption windows; traditional funds carry multi-year lock-ups
Two-layer fee structure: underlying fund fees plus advisory fee
Many vehicles issue 1099 forms rather than K-1s
Best suited for: Investors who work with a financial advisor and want manager-run fund exposure rather than individual deal selection.
Not a fit for: Self-directed investors without an advisor relationship, or those who want to see and choose the specific company before committing capital.
What it is: You buy exchange-listed shares of the management companies that run private equity funds. The shares trade through any standard brokerage account and are highly liquid.
What you own: Equity in the management company, not in the funds it manages and not in the underlying portfolio companies. The firm earns management fees on assets under management and carried interest when portfolio companies are sold, so your return tracks the growth of that fee and carry income, any dividends the firm declares, and how the market values the asset-management business.
Because of this, the share price does not track the performance of the firm's funds directly. A firm can post strong fee revenue and trade at a premium even when its funds are lagging on an internal-return basis. Public listing adds a layer of sentiment, valuation multiples, and macro sensitivity that does not exist in an illiquid fund interest. The largest listed managers include Blackstone, KKR, Apollo Global Management, and Carlyle Group, each running a diversified mix of buyouts, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, and insurance strategies.
Key features:
Available through any standard brokerage account, no accreditation required
Full intraday liquidity, with shares traded on public exchanges
Potential dividend income alongside price movement
Returns reflect fee and carry economics, not direct fund performance
Subject to public-market volatility and sentiment
Best suited for: Any investor who wants liquid exposure to private equity industry economics, or a liquid complement to a private allocation, without locking up capital.
Not a fit for: Investors adding private equity specifically to reduce public-market correlation, or those who want returns that mirror the internal performance of fund portfolios.
What it is: Publicly traded closed-end funds that hold portfolios of private company stakes are exchange-listed vehicles giving any investor access to a basket of private company equity through a standard brokerage account. This is a newer, fast-moving category. These are closed-end management investment companies with fixed share counts, not ETFs, so the share price is set by supply and demand on the exchange and can diverge sharply from the net asset value of the holdings.
What you own: Shares in a closed-end fund that holds positions in private companies. What you pay per share is set by the market, not by the net asset value (NAV) of the underlying private stakes.
The Fundrise Innovation Fund, traded as VCX, is a prototypical example of this vehicle type, holding private technology companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX, Databricks, Anduril, and Ramp. It listed on the NYSE in March 2026 with more than $650 million in assets and over 100,000 existing investors. Its early trading showed the central risk of the structure: in its first sessions the shares traded at many times the net asset value of the private holdings, then fell steeply as that premium compressed. Comparable vehicles include Destiny Tech100, traded as DXYZ and concentrated largely in SpaceX, and SuRo Capital, traded as SSSS, which holds a portfolio of late-stage venture-backed companies. The pattern across the category is the same: exchange-listed access to scarce private company exposure can command a large market premium, especially when the underlying companies are drawing attention ahead of anticipated IPOs, and that premium is a separate risk from how the companies themselves perform.
The appeal of this strategy is accessibility, with no accreditation requirement, no lock-up, and no minimum beyond the price of a single share. The risk is that you may be paying meaningfully more for the exposure than the underlying assets are worth.
Key features:
Available through any standard brokerage account, no accreditation required
Full intraday liquidity on major exchanges
Each fund holds a portfolio of private company stakes
Focused on late-stage private technology companies, not traditional buyout businesses
Market price carries premium-to-NAV risk, and may trade well above or below underlying value
Best suited for: Investors who specifically want liquid, exchange-listed exposure to late-stage private technology companies and understand they may be paying a substantial premium to underlying value.
Not a fit for: Investors seeking traditional buyout exposure in established, historically profitable operating businesses, those sensitive to the multiple paid relative to fundamental value, or anyone who cannot tolerate sharp short-term price swings.
What it is: Instead of funding a new transaction, you buy an existing stake from someone who already holds it and wants liquidity. The seller may be an employee, an early investor, or an institutional LP looking to exit before a fund's natural end. You're not funding a new deal; you're buying a position someone else originated.
What you own: A stake in a private company that an existing shareholder wants to sell before a public offering or acquisition. LP-stake secondaries are a more complex variant, where you buy part of an institution's position in a fund rather than shares in a single company.
The advantage is maturity, because a secondary investment is already partly or fully developed and a potential exit may be closer than it would be at the beginning. The trade-off is that you pay for that maturity: secondaries typically price at or near the company's last private valuation, so much of the early-stage upside has already been captured by the original investors. Online platforms that facilitate secondary purchases for accredited investors (Forge Global, EquityZen, Hiive) focus mostly on late-stage venture-backed technology companies rather than traditional buyout businesses.
Key features:
Available to accredited investors through online secondary platforms
Buy an existing stake from a current holder, not a new transaction
Direct secondaries focus on late-stage private technology companies
Return depends on a future liquidity event at a valuation above your purchase price
LP-stake secondaries give broader portfolio exposure but usually require larger minimums
Best suited for: Accredited investors who want exposure to specific late-stage private companies with some pricing transparency and can hold until a liquidity event.
Not a fit for: Investors seeking traditional buyout exposure in operating businesses, or those who need predictable liquidity.
Two questions eliminate most of the wrong options before you go any further.
1. Do you invest independently or through a financial advisor? Fund access through the advisor channel requires an existing relationship with an RIA at a firm that uses these distribution platforms. If you invest independently, that path is closed. Direct deal-by-deal investing, PE firm stocks, closed-end funds, and secondary platforms are all fully self-directed.
2. Do you need liquidity within three years? If yes, direct acquisition investing and traditional fund vehicles are unsuitable, because they lock up capital for multi-year holds with no reliable exit. PE firm stocks and closed-end funds offer full exchange-listed liquidity. Secondary platforms offer partial liquidity, but your ability to exit depends on finding a buyer or a liquidity event in the underlying company.
If those constraints do not narrow your options, one more question sharpens the choice:
3. Do you want your return to depend on how well a business is run, or on what the market will pay for it when it goes public? Direct deal-by-deal investing and advisor-channel funds focus on the former: acquisitions of operating businesses where value is created through management and operational improvement, with a sale to a strategic or financial buyer as the exit. Closed-end funds and secondary platforms mostly emphasize the latter, where your return depends on what the public market will pay at an IPO or acquisition. PE firm stocks sit outside this distinction entirely, giving you exposure to the firms that manage both types of investments.
The five strategies were selected to cover the full range of access structures available to an individual investor, from the most direct, equity in a specific operating company you can review before you commit, to the most liquid, publicly traded shares of the management companies. Each strategy is distinct in ownership model, accreditation requirement, and return driver. The guide does not include structures that require institutional capital commitments of $1 million or more, or access available only through placement-agent relationships.
How do individual investors access private equity investments?
Accredited investors can invest in private equity deal by deal through CapitalPad, a private equity co-investment group that gives access to lower middle market private equity investments, with full deal materials to review before any capital commitment and a $25,000 per-deal minimum. Across the market, individual investors reach private equity through five main routes: direct deal-by-deal investing in acquisitions, fund access through a registered investment advisor, publicly traded private equity firm stocks, publicly traded closed-end funds that hold private company stakes, and secondary purchases of existing stakes in private companies. The right route depends on what you want to own, how long you can commit capital, and whether you invest independently or through an advisor.
Can these strategies be combined?
Yes, and many investors who build meaningful private equity exposure use more than one. A common approach pairs a direct deal-by-deal position, which gives concentrated exposure to a specific business, with liquid publicly traded private equity exposure that generates income and can be sold at any time. Adding a secondary position over time diversifies the vintage and company mix. The strategies are not mutually exclusive, and they serve different parts of an alternatives allocation.
Does the premium-to-NAV risk apply to all closed-end funds, or only some?
It is a structural feature of any closed-end fund trading above its NAV, not specific to one fund. When the premium compresses, because anticipated IPOs happen, scarcity value fades, or sentiment shifts, the share price can fall even if the underlying private holdings are performing well. Anyone considering a closed-end fund should check the current premium or discount to NAV before buying and treat the premium itself as a separate layer of risk.
What is the difference between a closed-end fund that holds private companies and a private equity firm's stock?
A closed-end fund that holds private companies owns equity stakes in those companies directly, so when they grow in value or reach a liquidity event, the fund's NAV reflects that outcome, and you are one ownership layer from the companies themselves. A private equity firm's stock is equity in the management company that runs funds on behalf of investors, so your return reflects the growth of that firm's fee and carry income rather than the performance of the underlying portfolio companies, which sit two or three ownership layers away.
