What Is a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), and How Do RIAs Access Alternative Investments?
TL;DR: A Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) is a firm or person registered with the SEC or a state regulator that is legally bound to a fiduciary standard, meaning the advisor must act in your best
August 10, 2026
Nasdaq Private Market (NPM) Review 2026: Infrastructure, Not a Marketplace
TL;DR: Nasdaq Private Market (NPM) is not a marketplace you browse for pre-IPO stock. It is tender-offer infrastructure that companies hire to run their own liquidity programs, and NPM says it
August 10, 2026
Buffer ETFs Explained: Defined-Outcome Structures for Accredited Investors
TL;DR: A buffer ETF (also called a defined-outcome or structured-outcome ETF) uses options contracts to cap your upside in exchange for absorbing a set amount of downside loss over a fixed period,
August 10, 2026
How to Build an Illiquidity Budget Before Committing to Alternative Investments
TL;DR: Before you wire a dollar into a private equity fund, a venture vehicle, or an evergreen private credit product, size an illiquidity budget first. Cambridge Associates' framework is a useful
August 10, 2026
Linqto Review 2026: What Happened
TL;DR: Linqto marketed itself as the easy way to own SpaceX, Ripple, and Anthropic before they went public. In March 2025 it froze customer redemptions, an internal probe found that many customers
August 10, 2026
Whatnot's $20 Billion Round Just Gave Retail Its First Real Crack at Late-Stage Venture Upside
TL;DR: Whatnot closed a $545 million Series G on August 5, 2026, valuing the live-commerce platform at $20 billion, and Robinhood Ventures Fund I (NYSE: RVI) put in roughly $30 million of preferred...
August 9, 2026
Cornerstone Investors: What the First LP in Your Fund Actually Costs You
TL;DR: A cornerstone investor is the first LP who commits real size, usually 15-30% of your target, before you have a track record for that specific fund, and their check is what unlocks every check...
August 9, 2026
Cadre Direct Access Fund Review 2026: Minimums, Fees, and the Willow Wealth Problem
TL;DR: Cadre's Direct Access Fund still lists a $25,000 minimum and a fee stack around 1.5% annual asset management plus a 1.0% transaction fee, per Cadre's own support page . But the harder fact to...
August 9, 2026
Bad Actor Disqualification Under Rule 506: What Every LP Should Check Before Wiring Capital
Rule 506 of Regulation D lets private companies and funds raise capital without SEC registration, but there's a gate most retail-facing explainers skip: the SEC's "bad actor" disqualification rule,...
August 9, 2026
9,918 First-Time Funds Filed in Q1 2026: What the SEC's Form D Data Tells You
Reg D fund issuers raised $682.6 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 39% from $490.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to SEC DERA's Regulation D Offerings Statistics . Buried...
August 9, 2026
The SPAC Comeback Nobody's Hyping (And Why That's the Point)
SPACs are back, quietly. Not 2021 back. In 2025, 144 SPAC IPOs raised more than $30 billion, the strongest year since the boom, and 2026 is on pace to land somewhere close to that, with roughly 112...
August 9, 2026
CD&R's Fund XIII Offshore Filing: What a SICAV-RAIF Feeder Actually Does
On August 5, 2026, an entity called CD R Fund XIII Private Investors Offshore SICAV-RAIF S.C.Sp. filed a Form D with the SEC under Investment Company Act Section 3(c)(7). It's the offshore feeder...
August 9, 2026