Using a Little-Known Type of Fund for Private-Company Exposure
The Wall Street Journal had an article a while back discussing a type of situation where a financial adviser found interval funds to be a great fit for a client. The interval fund used here is SharesPost 100 Fund (PRIVX), but a similar process would likely apply for many different funds.
According to the adviser in the article:
“What’s interesting to me about closed-end interval funds is that clients get access to these [private] companies, but they have the transparency and regulatory benefits of the mutual-fund structure,”
The article describes how the adviser determined this was the best best option:
Given how new the SharesPost fund was, Mr. Walker felt it was important to learn as much about it as he could. He called the fund managers directly to learn about the underlying investments and discovered that the fund focuses on companies that are a few years away from an initial public stock offering.
This means the fund isn’t taking on the initial investment risk with the youngest private companies or the risk that they will become overvalued as they get close to their IPO date. The adviser felt these factors made the fund a good fit for his client…
Meanwhile, advisers shouldn’t “overlook something just because it’s a new investment structure or vehicle you’re not familiar with,” says Mr. Walker. “Sometimes you have to be willing to consider a different structure to provide the client the access they need and want.”
