#SEC Sends Private Markets Access Plan to the White House
The SEC sent a proposal to the White House on August 31 that would make it easier for everyday investors to gain exposure to private equity, private credit, and venture capital through registered investment funds. The plan, still under review at the Office of Management and Budget, would also let investment advisers charge performance fees to a wider range of clients.
Private companies are staying private longer, and the pool of public companies open to ordinary investors has shrunk. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has noted that more than 7,800 companies were listed on US exchanges in the mid-1990s, a figure that had fallen by roughly 40% by the time he became chairman in 2025. He has also argued that exposure to markets should not be reserved for wealthy insiders, framing the move as extending opportunities institutions already enjoy.
#A Market Already Growing Fast
The proposal would extend a shift already underway. So-called semiliquid funds, structures offering periodic access to private holdings, grew from $215 billion in 2022 to nearly $600 billion by March 2026, according to Morningstar. Much of that growth has been driven by private credit, particularly through non-traded business development companies and interval funds.
That growth happened before this proposal. An earlier SEC staff decision to drop a longstanding 15% limit on private-fund holdings for certain registered closed-end funds did much of the work. The new proposal would go further, easing constraints under the Investment Company Act and widening who can be charged a performance fee.
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#The Cost of Getting In
Access has not come cheap. Morningstar found semiliquid fund fees run roughly three times higher than a typical open-end mutual fund, and only four of the nineteen semiliquid strategies it had rated by May 30 earned a Bronze or Silver rating. Liquidity is limited by design. Investors in funds run by managers including Blue Owl and Blackstone have hit redemption limits over the past year when they tried to pull money out, and many semiliquid private-credit funds cap withdrawals at about 5% a quarter.
#What the Research Says
Not everyone agrees wider access changes much. Research from the University of Chicago's Becker Friedman Institute finds the private market may simply be too small relative to public markets for retail access to meaningfully improve the average investor's risk sharing, regardless of cost. Wealth managers add their own caution, noting that private managers who want a broader investor base will have to share more information than they have in the past, and nothing forces them to make that trade.
For retail investors, the proposal could broaden access to private markets through registered funds, building on earlier SEC staff changes that dropped accreditation and minimum-investment restrictions previously applied to certain registered closed-end funds investing in private funds. The proposal remains under White House review, and its full provisions, including investor safeguards, will not be known until it is publicly released.