Co-Investing Alongside Institutional Leads

Co-investment sounds simple in theory: an institutional investor leads a deal, and an individual investor joins on the same terms. In practice, most HNI clients who ask about it are surprised by how much structure sits underneath that simple idea — and that's exactly why it's worth understanding before you assume it isn't available to you.

Why co-investment access is limited in the first place

Institutional leads generally don't open a deal to outside individual investors as a matter of course. They do it when there's a structural reason — filling out a round, bringing in a strategic angle, or accommodating a relationship they already trust. That last point is where an advisory relationship matters: access to co-investment is rarely about having capital ready, and almost always about being inside a pipeline where the opportunity exists at all.

What the process actually looks like

• Suitability comes first. Before any specific deal, we assess whether direct private investment fits your liquidity needs, risk tolerance, and existing portfolio concentration.
• Terms mirror the institutional lead's, with limits. Co-investors typically receive the same economic terms as the lead, though governance rights (board seats, information rights) usually stay with the lead investor.
• Diligence is shared, not duplicated. You're not expected to run independent diligence from scratch — but you should expect to review, and understand, the diligence already completed.

What we'd tell you before you say yes

Direct co-investments are illiquid, concentrated, and carry real company-specific risk in a way a diversified public portfolio doesn't. The appeal — access, terms, involvement — is real, but it's not a substitute for a properly diversified portfolio. We treat co-investment as one allocation decision within a broader plan, not a strategy on its own.