Abstract
Private equity has become one of the most powerful engines of the modern economy, yet its gates remain closed to the vast majority of Americans. Under current federal securities laws, access to private funds is reserved for “accredited investors” and “qualified purchasers,” wealth-based categories that exclude most American households. This Note argues that these thresholds no longer serve as reliable proxies for sophistication and instead entrench economic inequality by reserving the highest-yielding asset class for the already wealthy. Tracing the development of private equity from its venture-capital roots through the SEC’s recent regulatory efforts—including the vacated 2023 Private Fund Rules—this Note demonstrates how the current regime stymies “Main Street” participation while failing to meaningfully improve investor protection. It then evaluates three potential reforms: eliminating wealth thresholds, expanding the accredited investor definition, and adopting a “chaperoned access” framework in which retail investors participate in private funds alongside institutional investors or through fiduciary intermediaries. Ultimately, the Note endorses chaperoned access because it best balances inclusion with oversight. By modernizing its framework to permit supervised participation, the SEC can transform private equity from an exclusive domain of the few into a regulated avenue of shared growth for the many.
Recommended Citation
Willis Huynh,
Opening Wall Street to Main Street: A Proposed Framework for Expanding Private Equity to the Public,
91 Brook. L. Rev.
267
(2025).
Available at:
https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr/vol91/iss1/6