The family office has long outgrown a safe full of contracts and transformed into a set of specialized platforms. Through some, you enter Blackstone and KKR funds well below the institutional threshold; through others, you buy a stake in SpaceX long before IPO; a third group manages cap tables and assembles SPVs for club deals; a fourth holds crypto assets under banking licenses. Each platform is a choice of counterparty, jurisdiction, and disclosure regime, and understanding it requires the same diligence as analyzing a holding structure.
Below is a map of six categories with a breakdown of key platforms in each, and each category carries the same three-axis table — counterparty, jurisdiction, disclosure — with access and cost alongside. Categories 1 and 3 carry a second table as well, because there the decision turns on price, liquidity and timing rather than on who the counterparty is. The goal is simple: show how the market works and what to look for before entrusting a platform with money or data. For a family building a family office, this is part of the same architecture as legal entities, trusts, and accounts.
Six Categories of the "Gentleman's Set"
1. Access to Private Markets
Feeder platforms pool capital from several private investors into a single structure and use it to enter PE, VC, or private credit funds—below the institutional minimum of tens of millions. Moonfare provides access to funds with a threshold its own FAQ puts at €50,000 for portfolio funds and €100,000 for classic feeder funds, both depending on where the investor is located; its secondary fund starts at €25,000. Access is stated for professional and semi-professional categories rather than the general retail public. iCapital operates as a B2B "pipeline": managers connect clients to alternatives without building infrastructure from scratch. The investor buys a share in a feeder fund, which itself acts as an LP in the fund, so the fund's fees stack with the platform's fees, and information rights and exit terms are determined by the feeder agreement.
One thing to keep in mind about iCapital: a private investor never opens an account there. The platform sells infrastructure to banks, brokerage houses and independent advisers, and the family sees it only as the alternatives "menu" its manager presents. How that machinery is assembled — feeder funds, subscription, capital calls, reporting and the fees that sit on top of the fund's own — follows the logic of any feeder fund.
| Platform | Counterparty: who holds the asset | Jurisdiction and regime | Disclosure | Minimum and fee stack | Who is eligible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonfare | An interest in a Luxembourg feeder fund, which is itself the LP in the target fund | Luxembourg fund vehicles; Moonfare Financial Services GmbH under BaFin since May 2026 | The feeder agreement sets information, valuation and exit rights; there is no offering circular | €50,000 for portfolio funds, €100,000 for classic feeders, €25,000 for the secondaries fund; platform fee of roughly 0.25–1% a year on top of the fund's own | Professional and semi-professional categories rather than the general retail public |
| iCapital | An interest in an iCapital feeder; the distributing bank or adviser stands between the family and the platform | US and offshore feeder structures | Whatever the distributor passes on — the investor never contracts with the platform directly | No walk-in entry; the minimum is whatever the distributor sets | Clients of banks, brokerage houses and independent advisers only |
| Arta Finance | Feeder interests, with custody at BNY Pershing | SEC-registered adviser in the US; Arta Wealth Management Pte under a MAS capital-markets services licence | Manager fees disclosed to members inside the platform; SIPC up to $500,000 in the US loop | From $10,000 into private-market feeders at 0.6–1.0% of AUM on top of fund fees; $100,000 expected by the end of the first year of membership | Accredited investors in the US and, through Singapore, in supported countries under the MAS tests |
| Endowus Private Wealth | Fund units held through the platform's Singapore and Hong Kong entities | MAS and SFC licences | Fee-only model with trailer-fee rebates disclosed | From US$50,000 on alternatives at 0.40–0.60% a year | Accredited investors in Singapore and Hong Kong |
| Titanbay | An interest in a fund or feeder that Titanbay structures and runs for the asset manager; the wealth manager stands between the family and the platform | Titanbay Ireland Limited, authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as an alternative investment fund manager; Luxembourg structures such as an SCSp-RAIF, master, feeder and ELTIF formats, and the UK LTAF | Whatever the wealth manager passes on; the investor does not contract with the platform directly | Not published; set by the wealth manager's programme | Clients of the wealth managers and private banks that use the platform |
| ADDX | Security tokens representing interests in private-equity, hedge-fund and structured-product offerings, held in custody by ADDX itself | ADDX Pte. Ltd., Singapore; a capital markets services licensee of MAS for dealing in capital markets products and providing custodial services | Documents per offering; trading rules and OTC rules published for the platform's own secondary market | From US$1,000 on most offerings; a one-time subscription fee and no annual platform fee, while the underlying funds charge their own management and performance fees | Accredited investors, with status confirmed at onboarding |
Counterparty and disclosure explain what is owned. The decision to write the cheque is made on four other numbers — the wrapper the money enters, the ticket, the charge on top of the fund's own, and what liquidity exists before the fund ends.
| Platform | Wrapper the money enters | Minimum | Charge on top of the fund's own fees | Liquidity before the fund ends | Where onboarding is open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonfare | Luxembourg feeder fund; part of the EU range packaged as an ELTIF | €50,000 portfolio fund, €100,000 single feeder, €25,000 secondaries fund, ≈$60,000 Growth Equity Portfolio; ≈$75,000 in the US and £50,000 in the UK | Setup 0–1% plus ≈0.25–1% a year depending on the product | Secondary windows about twice a year with Lexington Partners as the buyer; neither price nor completion guaranteed; newer semi-liquid formats have more frequent windows | Licensed in more than 20 countries: Moonfare Securities USA, LLC as a broker-dealer in the US, Moonfare Financial Services GmbH under BaFin in the EU since 26 May 2026, qualified investors under CISA in Switzerland |
| iCapital | US and offshore feeder funds sold through a bank, brokerage house or adviser | Whatever the distributor sets; there is no walk-in entry | Passed through by the distributor, which also sets its own layer | Set by the feeder documents the distributor presents | Nowhere directly: the family reaches the menu only through an existing manager |
| Arta Finance | Feeder interests with custody at BNY Pershing | From $10,000 into private-market feeders; $100,000 expected by the end of the first year of membership | 0.6–1.0% of assets a year on top of fund fees | Set by each feeder; the platform adds no redemption promise | Accredited investors in the US and, through the Singapore entity's MAS licence, in supported countries — a status test rather than a residence test |
| Endowus Private Wealth | Fund units held through the Singapore and Hong Kong entities | From US$50,000 on alternatives | 0.40–0.60% a year, fee-only, with trailer-fee rebates disclosed | Set by each fund's own terms | Accredited investors resident in Singapore and Hong Kong |
| Trade Republic | Evergreen ELTIF: Apollo Private Markets ELTIF and EQT Nexus | €1 | Nothing separate for the platform; ongoing charges sit in the fund at ≈2.35% (EQT Nexus) and ≈2.8% (Apollo) a year plus a performance fee | Quarterly redemption at fund level, which may be capped, plus a monthly internal marketplace the platform runs on top | Residents of the 18 European markets served; US persons are not accepted |
| Farther | No platform wrapper: private markets are bought through Farther Asset Management inside an advisory relationship, with custody at Fidelity, Schwab, Pershing or Apex | No hard minimum; the historical benchmark is $100,000 a household | The advisory fee is negotiated within a 2% cap, the wrap programme runs 0.35–2.00%, and private-market and third-party fund fees are charged on top | Set by each fund; the adviser adds none | Built around US custody and US tax documentation; cross-border cases are confirmed with the firm before assets move |
| Compound Planning | No platform wrapper: an advised allocation inside the client's own account at Charles Schwab or Fidelity, with the adviser holding trading authority only | A formal $25,000 minimum | 0.2–2.0% a year plus 0.25% for the in-house turnkey wrapper; tax filing billed separately | Set by each fund | US persons with US accounts and US tax residency; there is no public onboarding for non-residents |
Three legal shapes sit behind those seven rows. A feeder gives an interest in someone else's Luxembourg or Delaware vehicle, which is itself the limited partner in the fund, so information, valuation and exit rights are whatever the feeder agreement says. An ELTIF is a regulated retail product with its own prospectus, key information document and redemption rules. The advised allocation has no platform wrapper at all: the client owns the fund, the adviser only has authority to trade, and the platform's economics are an advisory fee rather than a feeder margin.
The ticket has stopped being the barrier. €1 at Trade Republic and €100,000 at Moonfare buy exposure to the same asset class, and the gap is a wrapper effect rather than generosity: ELTIF 2.0, applying since 10 January 2024, removed the €10,000 entry minimum and the 10% cap on a retail investor's aggregate exposure, leaving the MiFID II suitability assessment as the only filter, while a classic feeder still needs professional or semi-professional status. What the low ticket buys is a multi-manager fund whose ongoing charges of ≈2.35–2.8% a year plus a performance fee dwarf the 0.25–1% a platform adds on top of a single manager.
Liquidity separates the wrappers more sharply than fees do. A classic feeder is illiquid for the life of the fund — ten years and more — and Moonfare's twice-yearly windows with Lexington Partners on the other side create a possible route out, not a right to sell at a date or a price. An evergreen ELTIF redeems quarterly and Trade Republic adds a monthly marketplace, but redemption gates can cap volumes, and a monthly window is not a promise of redemption at net asset value.
Residency and status decide before money does. Compound Planning and Farther work inside US custody and US tax documentation; Endowus needs residence in Singapore or Hong Kong; Trade Republic needs residence in one of its 18 markets and excludes US persons outright. Arta is the exception, because its Singapore licence turns accreditation rather than residence into the test. iCapital is not a route at all for a family without an existing bank or adviser.
The two non-US rows added to the first table follow the same split. Titanbay is the European counterpart to iCapital: an Irish-authorised fund manager that builds Luxembourg and UK vehicles for asset managers and sells them through wealth managers, so a family reaches it only through its private bank. ADDX is the Singapore counterpart to Arta with a lower ticket: from US$1,000, with interests issued as security tokens and a secondary market run by the platform itself, but only for accredited investors.
| Profile | The route | What it costs and what to check |
|---|---|---|
| EU resident without professional status, small ticket | An evergreen ELTIF through Trade Republic, or Moonfare's ELTIF share of the range | Total ongoing charges plus the performance fee; the redemption gate and the valuation rules, not the €1 headline |
| EU professional or semi-professional buying named managers | A Moonfare single-fund feeder at €100,000 a name | Setup 0–1% and ≈0.25–0.75% a year on top of the fund's own terms; a ten-year lock with windows twice a year |
| Accredited investor outside the US and the EU | Arta Finance through its Singapore licence, or Endowus Private Wealth if resident in Singapore or Hong Kong | From $10,000 and US$50,000 respectively at 0.40–1.0% a year; confirm which group entity contracts |
| US person already working with an adviser | Farther or Compound Planning | A negotiated advisory fee plus the funds' own; the shelf belongs to the adviser, so ask which feeders it can actually reach |
| Family whose private bank or adviser is already in place | The iCapital menu through that distributor | The minimum and the fee are the distributor's; there is no direct contract with the platform to negotiate |
On €200,000 the two European routes diverge sharply. Split across two Moonfare single-fund feeders at €100,000 a name, the platform layer costs up to €2,000 of setup and €500–€1,500 a year, so roughly €5,000–€17,000 over a ten-year life on top of the funds' own management fee and carried interest — and the money cannot be recalled except through a secondary window. The same €200,000 into an evergreen ELTIF at ≈2.35% of ongoing charges costs about €4,700 a year, near €47,000 over the same decade before any performance fee, and buys quarterly redemption plus a monthly marketplace. The cheap ticket is the expensive wrapper: the annual charge is what pays for retail access and for liquidity.
2. Secondary Market for Private Shares
Here, stakes in pre-IPO companies and employee options are traded while the company itself remains private. Hiive displays an order book with visible bids and asks; Forge Global (NYSE: FRGE) has assembled a full stack—data, valuation, and execution; Nasdaq Private Market, spun out in July 2021 into a standalone company with strategic investments from SVB, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, focuses on company-sponsored tenders—liquidity by invitation of the issuer itself. Legally, almost every transaction hinges on ROFR and company consent: shares are bound by transfer restrictions, and the stated "price" reflects the balance of supply and demand and diverges from the official business valuation.
| Platform | Counterparty: who holds the asset | Jurisdiction and regime | Disclosure | Minimum and fee stack | Who is eligible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hiive | The buyer takes the company's shares directly, subject to transfer restrictions | Canadian and US dealer registrations | A live order book with visible bids and asks | Set listing by listing | Accredited investors |
| Forge Global | Direct transaction, a single-company fund or a multi-company fund; private securities can sit in a self-directed IRA through Forge Trust | US broker-dealer, part of Charles Schwab since the deal closed on 2 March 2026 | Forge Price is an indicative valuation and not an executable quote | About $100,000 for a direct secondary and from $5,000 in certain funds; Forge's own fee typically 2–4% on direct secondaries, plus transfer agent, legal and escrow costs | Accredited investors |
| Nasdaq Private Market | Shares bought inside a tender the issuer itself runs | US broker-dealer; a standalone company since July 2021 | The issuer controls the process, the price and what is disclosed | Set by the tender terms | Whoever the issuer invites |
3. Cap Table, Funds, and SPVs
This category manages ownership records and assembles structures for co-investments. Carta is the standard for cap table and fund administration — in January 2024 its founder Henry Ward put those two businesses at about $250m and $100m a year — and in the same month it exited secondary trading. Ward's stated reason was structural: while Carta holds the data, clients will suspect it of trading on that data, so the company chose trust over a line then worth about $3m a year. AngelList and Sydecar handle syndicates and "club" deals; Sydecar promises fixed pricing and assembly without carry on administration. An SPV itself is a separate legal entity (usually a Delaware LLC) for a single transaction, and the cap table remains a register that reflects rights but does not replace corporate documents.
| Platform | Counterparty: what is actually held | Jurisdiction and regime | Disclosure | Cost structure | Who is eligible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carta | A register of ownership: Carta keeps the record and owns nothing | US; cap table and fund administration | A cap-table extract and fund reporting, which reflect rights without replacing corporate documents | Priced per plan for the company or the fund, not for the investor | Companies and fund managers |
| AngelList | An interest in an SPV or a fund vehicle, not in the target company | Usually a Delaware LLC per deal | Subscription documents and the vehicle's own reporting | Set per syndicate; carry sits at the lead's level | Accredited investors joining a syndicate |
| Sydecar | An interest in a deal-specific SPV | Delaware | Fixed, published pricing per deal | A fixed assembly price with no carry charged on administration | Accredited investors |
| bunch | An interest in the manager's own fund, SPV or club-deal vehicle; bunch runs the investor portal, transfer agency, fund accounting and reporting | bunch technology GmbH, Berlin, HRB 235368 B; structures in Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Luxembourg; tax work sits with the separate agora tax GmbH | The portal and reporting follow the vehicle's own documents | Quoted on request; no public price list | Investors admitted by the manager of each vehicle |
| Odin | An interest in a deal-specific SPV or a fund: a UK trust for S/EIS deals, a Delaware LP, or fund domiciles in the US, UK, Luxembourg, Singapore and offshore | Join Odin Limited (FRN 962398), an appointed representative of Hurricane Capital UK Limited, which the FCA authorises | Deal documents per vehicle; promotions go only to investors who evidence exempt status | Not published on the site | Investors eligible to receive exempt financial promotions under UK rules |
The two European rows change the jurisdiction column. bunch sells fund operations to more than 150 managers across Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and publishes no price, so it competes with Carta and Vauban on administration rather than with Sydecar on a per-deal fee. Odin is the closest UK analogue to AngelList and Sydecar: an SPV that can take investors within two hours of the deal being submitted, a UK trust for S/EIS relief and a choice of fund domiciles, with its FCA perimeter borrowed through an appointed-representative arrangement rather than held directly.
For a family assembling its own vehicle, the three axes settle who holds what. The choice between administrators is then made on four numbers the platforms themselves publish unevenly: the one-off cost, what recurs, how fast the vehicle opens, and which jurisdictions it can sit in.
| Administrator | One-off cost | Recurring cost | Time to launch | Vehicle jurisdictions | What the price does and does not include |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AngelList | ≈$8,000 of setup for a single-deal SPV, ≈$5,000 for a follow-on into the same company, plus ≈$2,000 of blue-sky regulatory pass-through; setup and regulatory costs together are capped at 10% of the SPV size | None on an SPV. A fund pays an annual administration fee by tier plus a percentage of committed capital, fixed for years 1–10, historically ≈$10,000 a year plus 0.1% and ≈$20,000 a year plus 0.15%, now quoted on request, with a one-off implementation fee at first close | Days | Delaware LP or Series LLC | Includes formation, investor onboarding, capital calls, K-1s and an LP portal. Recommended minimum raise ≈$80,000, or ≈$50,000 for a follow-on; AngelList takes an extra 5% carry from LPs who arrive through its Meridian marketplace; a secondary purchase does not qualify for the standard platform-advised SPV |
| Sydecar | 2% of capital raised, banded between $2,500 and $12,500, plus a $2,000 regulatory fee — $4,500 to $14,500 in total | No annual administration fee and no carry to the platform | Approval in about one business day | Delaware LLC, offered under Reg D, usually 506(b) | Includes formation, a dedicated bank account, KYC, KYB and AML, K-1 issuance and tax filings, Form D and blue-sky filings. Add-ons of $3,000 each for an investment in a non-US target, for an intermediate US pass-through entity and for each additional closing, plus $1,000 for the first distribution |
| Carta with Vauban | Quoted per plan; not published | Quoted per plan; not published | Not published | The broadest shelf of the four: US, UK, BVI and Luxembourg since the 2022 Vauban acquisition | Includes capital calls, investor reporting and tax forms, net asset value, KYC and AML, alongside cap table and SEC transfer-agent functions. The same provider then holds the target company's register, which is the conflict Carta resolved by leaving secondary trading in 2024 |
| Allocations | The base fee is not published; the published add-ons are +$4,000 per additional investment in a multi-asset SPV or fund, +$5,000 for a 506(c) fund, +$2,000 per additional close and +$2,000 for an adviser | Not published | Not stated as a period; the platform claims a close 3–10 times faster | US | Includes formation, investor onboarding with end-to-end e-signature, cap table, Reg D and blue-sky filings, automated K-1s, fee calculations, exempt reporting adviser compliance and distributions |
The two published price lists cross over at a raise of roughly $400,000. Below that the banded percentage wins: on a $150,000 club cheque Sydecar charges $3,000 of variable fee plus the $2,000 regulatory fee — $5,000 in total — against AngelList's ≈$10,000 of setup and pass-through, which barely moves with deal size. Above it the flat fee wins: on a $1m SPV Sydecar's variable part hits its $12,500 ceiling for $14,500 all in, while AngelList is still near $10,000. Anything Carta or Allocations quotes has to be compared against those two published numbers rather than against each other.
Carry is the second line, and it is not part of the administration fee. Sydecar takes none, which is the whole point of the model, and leads on the platform set their own — averaging around 12% against the market's typical 20%. AngelList takes none from the lead either, but adds 5% of carry on LPs it introduces through Meridian, so the economics depend on where the co-investors came from rather than on the fee schedule.
For a family outside the United States the decisive number is not the setup fee but the wrapper. A Delaware vehicle is tax-transparent, each participant receives a Schedule K-1 and inherits US-source income, and a foreign limited partner may face US filing and withholding consequences where the vehicle has effectively connected income. Sydecar's $3,000 line is priced against the shape of the deal — an investment in a non-US target, or a US pass-through entity coming in as an LP — and not against the investor's passport; a foreign LP still needs W-8 documentation and a withholding analysis without triggering that charge. The expensive part of the structure is the decision on a blocker or offshore feeder above the SPV, and it is taken per deal.
| Situation | The administrator | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A one-off club cheque below ≈$400,000 into a US target | Sydecar | The banded 2% stays under the flat setup fee, approval takes about a business day, and no carry leaves the deal |
| A one-off SPV above ≈$400,000 | AngelList | A flat setup fee stops growing where a percentage keeps climbing to its cap |
| Regular deal flow, several vehicles a year | An AngelList fund or Rolling Fund | One annual administration fee replaces a dozen separate setups, and the economics become visible in one place |
| The vehicle has to sit outside the US | Carta with Vauban | The only published multi-jurisdiction shelf among the four: UK, BVI and Luxembourg alongside Delaware |
| A secondary purchase rather than a primary round | A self-advised structure, administered rather than platform-advised | AngelList does not treat a secondary as a qualifying venture investment for its standard platform-advised SPV, so the manager supplies the adviser |
4. Institutional-Grade Crypto Custody
Institutional custody of digital assets rests on licensing and technology—these are different pillars. The OCC conditionally approved the conversion of Anchorage Trust Company into Anchorage Digital Bank, National Association, on 13 January 2021, and for several years no comparable national trust charter went to a digital-asset firm; on 12 December 2025 the OCC conditionally approved five more — de novo charters for First National Digital Currency Bank and Ripple National Trust Bank, and conversions for BitGo Bank & Trust, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos Trust Company. Those approvals are preliminary and contingent on the OCC's pre-opening requirements.
Coinbase Prime offers custody and prime brokerage from a public company (NASDAQ: COIN), Kraken holds assets through a Wyoming SPDI banking license. Fireblocks began on the technology side — MPC storage deployed by exchanges and custodians themselves — but since August 2024 its affiliate Fireblocks Trust Company, LLC has held a New York limited purpose trust charter from the NYDFS, so the technology provider and the licensed custodian are separate entities inside one group.
For a manager, the key question is who qualifies as a qualified custodian under the Investment Advisers Act, and who is merely a technology provider.
| Provider | Counterparty: who holds the keys | Jurisdiction and regime | Disclosure | Cost structure | Who is eligible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchorage Digital Bank, National Association | A bank holds the assets as custodian | OCC national trust charter, conditionally approved on 13 January 2021 | Bank-grade reporting; the qualified-custodian question still has to be answered contract by contract | Institutional pricing | Institutions, funds and advisers |
| Coinbase Prime | Custody and prime brokerage inside a listed group (NASDAQ: COIN) | US | Public-company disclosure alongside client statements | Institutional pricing | Institutions |
| Kraken | Assets held under a Wyoming SPDI banking licence | Wyoming | Client statements | Institutional pricing | Institutions |
| Fireblocks | Two different entities: the MPC technology provider, and Fireblocks Trust Company, LLC, which has held a New York limited-purpose trust charter from the NYDFS since August 2024 | New York for the trust entity | Read the contract to see which of the two signs it | Institutional pricing | Exchanges, custodians and institutions |
| BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paxos, First National Digital Currency Bank, Ripple National Trust Bank | National trust banks in the making | Five OCC approvals of 12 December 2025, conditional on pre-opening requirements | Not yet a settled picture: an approval is not an open bank | Institutional pricing | Institutions |
5. Alternative Assets
Platforms in this category securitize what was previously illiquid: art, wine, collectible assets. Masterworks buys a painting by Banksy or Warhol, registers it to a separate LLC, and sells shares in that LLC through Reg A+—essentially a mini-IPO with an offering circular filed with the SEC; the stated minimum is $15,000 per offering (exceptions are granted case by case), holding horizon 3–10 years, limited liquidity through an internal secondary market. The investor owns a share in the company that owns the painting, while the manager controls the asset and timing of sale.
| Platform | Counterparty: what the investor owns | Jurisdiction and regime | Disclosure | Minimum and liquidity | Who is eligible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masterworks | Shares in an LLC that owns the painting; the manager controls the asset and the timing of the sale | A separate Delaware LLC per work, offered under Reg A+ with a filing at the SEC | A full offering circular — the deepest disclosure in this whole map | A stated minimum of $15,000 per offering, exceptions granted case by case; a 3–10 year horizon with limited liquidity through an internal secondary market | Wider than accredited investors, within the terms of each Reg A+ offering |
| Yieldstreet, now Willow Wealth | Depending on the product: an interest in a private-placement vehicle, a short-term note, or shares of the registered Yieldstreet Alternative Income Fund | US; Willow Asset Management LLC is an SEC-registered adviser, and brokerage runs through Atomic Brokerage LLC and Willow Wealth Markets LLC | Offering documents per private placement; a prospectus for the registered fund | No minimum on the home page; the platform itself tells private-placement investors to plan for 5–7 years | Private placements for accredited investors only |
| Rally | Shares in a series of RSE Collection, RSE Archive or RSE Innovation LLC, each series owning one collectible | US; offering circulars filed with the SEC, sold through partner FINRA broker-dealers | An offering circular per series | Shares from about $50; resale on the in-app bid/ask market during weekday market hours after a holding period; no buying or selling fees | Adults with a US Social Security number and an address in the contiguous US; international and business accounts by request |
| Vinovest | The bottles themselves: title to specific wine and whisky, insured and stored in bonded warehouses, with delivery on request | US platform; no security is issued, so no offering document stands behind the holding | A published tier table; no prospectus | $2,000 minimum balance at 2.85% a year, falling to 2.25% from $250,000; sales coordinated at maturity after 4–10 years | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Konvi | Fractional co-ownership through a separate legal structure set up for each asset: watches, art, collectibles | An Irish company registered with the Central Bank of Ireland as a Schedule 2 firm for anti-money-laundering purposes only, which Konvi itself says is not authorisation as an investment firm | A key information document and legal documents per opportunity in the app | From €250; money returns when the asset is sold, and no secondary market is described | Adults from selected countries |
The five rows sit on a disclosure ladder. Masterworks and Rally file an offering circular for every object, Yieldstreet's registered fund has a prospectus while its private placements carry only their own documents, Konvi supplies a key information document without holding an investment-firm licence, and Vinovest issues nothing at all because the client owns the bottles. The ladder runs the other way on control: at Vinovest the client can take delivery, while in every share-based structure the manager decides when the object is sold.
6. Brokerage and Digital Wealth
The first five categories answer where alternative assets are bought. The sixth answers where the liquid portfolio sits and who manages it — and it is the category a family office actually uses every day. Two different animals live here. A broker gives execution and custody and leaves the decisions to the client; a digital wealth platform sells advice, portfolio construction and reporting on top of somebody else's custody. The legal difference shows up the moment something fails: a broker is covered by an investor-compensation scheme, while an adviser holds no client assets at all and the protection belongs to the custodian.
The axis that decides the shortlist is not fee but eligibility. Compound Planning is closed to anyone without a US address and taxpayer number, Endowus to anyone outside Singapore and Hong Kong, and Trade Republic to anyone outside the EU markets it serves. Arta is the outlier: its Singapore licence turns accreditation, not residence, into the test, which is why it appears in both the private-markets category and this one. The broker layer is the only one that is genuinely global, and there the filter moves to which group entity a given country of residence is routed into — set out entity by entity in international brokerage.
| Platform | Counterparty: who holds the assets | Jurisdiction and protection | Disclosure and reporting | Minimum and fee stack | Who is eligible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| International brokerage: IBKR, Saxo, Swissquote | The contracting group entity holds the account and the custody chain | Set by that entity: SIPC $500,000 in the US, FSCS £85,000 in the UK, the Irish ICS at €20,000, the Danish Garantiformuen at €100,000 on cash and €20,000 on securities, segregation under Swiss law | Statements plus CRS and FATCA reporting; W-8BEN and Form 1042-S on US income | No account minimum at IBKR, commissions from $0.0005 a share on the tiered plan and no custody fee; Saxo charges annual custody of 0.12%, or 0.08% at VIP | By country of residence, entity by entity |
| Trade Republic | A licensed bank: cash in an omnibus trust account at partner banks, securities in custody | German bank under BaFin; the deposit guarantee scheme of the respective partner bank up to €100,000 per customer | Standard bank and broker reporting | Retail entry points; the range is built on UCITS and ETFs that carry a key information document | Residents of the EU markets served |
| Endowus | Fund units through the Singapore and Hong Kong entities | MAS and SFC licences | Fee-only with trailer-fee rebates disclosed | Private Wealth from US$50,000 at 0.40–0.60% a year; CPF and SRS monies supported | Residents of Singapore and Hong Kong; accredited status for the private-wealth shelf |
| Arta Finance | Managed portfolios, feeders and notes with custody at BNY Pershing | SEC-registered adviser in the US, MAS capital-markets services licence in Singapore; SIPC up to $500,000 in the US loop | Manager fees disclosed inside the platform | Core portfolios from $25,000 at 0.5%, US Treasuries from $5,000 at 0.2%, private markets from $10,000 at 0.6–1.0%; $100,000 expected by the end of year one | Accredited investors, including non-US through Singapore |
| Farther | An SEC-registered adviser holding no assets; custody sits with third parties | US | Form ADV and Form CRS | Roughly $15bn under management as at May 2026; fees negotiated with the adviser | US clients |
| Compound Planning | An SEC-registered adviser (CRD 171787) with trading authority only; accounts in the client's name at Charles Schwab and Fidelity, SIPC up to $500,000 | US | Form ADV and Form CRS, including a "Yes" answer on disciplinary history in the Form CRS dated 26 March 2026 | A formal $25,000 minimum, 0.2–2.0% a year plus 0.25% for the in-house turnkey wrapper; tax filing billed separately | US persons with US accounts and tax residency; no public onboarding for non-residents |
Which category answers which question
| The question | The category | What decides the choice inside it |
|---|---|---|
| Entry into a named PE or VC fund below the institutional ticket | 1 — private markets | Eligibility first, then the two layers of fees and the liquidity windows in the feeder agreement |
| A stake in a named pre-IPO company | 2 — the secondary market | Whether the deal can close at all: the right of first refusal and issuer consent, then price transparency |
| Assembling a club deal with other investors | 3 — SPVs and cap table | Where the carry sits and what a non-US participant receives in reporting |
| Holding digital assets institutionally | 4 — crypto custody | Which entity in the group is the licensed custodian and which is only the technology |
| Exposure to art or collectibles without owning the object | 5 — alternative assets | Who controls the sale and when, and whether the investor owns the object or shares in its holder |
| Where the liquid portfolio sits and who manages it | 6 — brokerage and digital wealth | Residency and status, then which entity books the account and what protects it |
How to Read a Platform: Counterparty, Jurisdiction, Disclosure
Any of these platforms can be analyzed along three axes. Counterparty: who actually owns the assets—a bank with a trust license, a broker, a technology provider, or an LLC for a single object. Jurisdiction: where the structure is registered and which law and bankruptcy regime it is subject to—Delaware, Wyoming, EU, or offshore, and what economic substance backs it. Disclosure: what reports and information rights the investor receives—from a full offering circular under Reg A+ to a sparse cap table extract. The answers to these three questions say more about a platform than its brand.
Regulation: Who Is Even Allowed
Access to most platforms depends on investor status. In the US, this is an accredited investor—individual income above $200,000 ($300,000 jointly with a spouse) in each of the two most recent years, or net worth above $1 million excluding the primary residence; for the most exclusive funds, the qualified purchaser threshold is added, at not less than $5 million in investments. In the EU, there is a division into professional and semi-professional investors, and the ELTIF 2.0 reform—Regulation (EU) 2023/606, applying from 10 January 2024—removed the ELTIF's own €10,000 minimum initial investment and the 10% cap on a retail investor's aggregate exposure, leaving the MiFID II suitability assessment as the filter. Custodians have their own filter: qualified custodian status under the Investment Advisers Act determines who may hold client assets—which is why federal and Wyoming licenses in crypto are so highly valued.
Packaged products sitting on the same client menu carry an admission filter of their own. A structured note reaches an EU retail investor only with a PRIIPs KID and after a MiFID II suitability check, and that check says nothing about the issuer's credit standing: what the KID actually discloses, how an autocall and a reverse convertible behave, and why liquidity here is promised without being guaranteed are set out in structured products and notes.
What Has Changed in the Last Couple of Years
The platform market is changing rapidly. Carta left secondary trading in January 2024 and focused on cap table and fund administration. Nasdaq Private Market has operated as an independent company since July 2021, with strategic investments from SVB, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. In crypto, December 2025 ended the single-charter picture: the OCC conditionally approved five national trust bank charters for digital-asset firms, subject to pre-opening conditions, and institutional custody ceased to be a one-bank story. In parallel, ELTIF 2.0 has applied in Europe since 10 January 2024. The overall vector is more access and simultaneously more regulation.
Q/A
What separates a broker from a digital wealth platform in the sixth category?
What happens to the assets. A broker holds the account and sits behind an investor-compensation scheme that depends on its entity — SIPC, FSCS, the Irish ICS, the Danish Garantiformuen. An adviser such as Farther or Compound Planning holds nothing: accounts stay in the client's name at a third-party custodian and the adviser has trading authority under the agreement, so the protection belongs to the custodian and the adviser's own failure does not move the account.
Why does the same platform appear in two categories?
Because the category describes the function, not the company. Arta Finance sells feeder access to private-market funds and, separately, managed portfolios, notes and custody through BNY Pershing — two different counterparty and disclosure positions inside one membership. Endowus splits the same way between its fund shelf and its private-wealth alternatives. Read the product, then the entity behind that product.
Which five facts should be established before comparing platform brands?
Identify the contractual counterparty, the entity that actually holds the asset, the governing jurisdiction and insolvency regime, the disclosure package and the complete fee stack. Separately confirm who controls a sale and which transfer or exit restrictions apply.
How can an investor tell what is actually owned through a feeder or SPV?
The subscription agreement, constitutional documents and ownership register answer that question, not the platform interface. The investor may own an interest in a feeder or SPV rather than the underlying fund or company, so information, voting, distribution and exit rights must be read in those documents.
Does a quote on a private-secondary platform guarantee that the trade will close?
No. The SEC notes that private-company securities are often restricted and a resale must be registered or fit an exemption; issuer documents may add rights of first refusal and company consent. A displayed bid or ask shows interest, but does not guarantee approval, settlement or liquidity.
Does accredited-investor status mean that an investment is suitable?
No. The status determines eligibility for some unregistered offerings; it does not certify quality, liquidity or suitability. An eligible investor must still examine disclosure, valuation, lock-ups, capital calls, conflicts and every layer of fees before committing.
Does custody technology make its provider a qualified custodian?
No. Identify the licensed legal entity that actually maintains the cash or securities, and verify the contract, account structure and direct statements. Under the SEC custody rule, a qualified custodian maintains assets in a client-named account or an account containing only client assets.
Why does a €1 entry into private markets cost more than a €100,000 one?
Because the charge sits in a different place. A €1 ticket exists only inside an evergreen ELTIF, a regulated retail fund whose own ongoing charges run at ≈2.35–2.8% a year plus a performance fee and which promises periodic redemption. A €100,000 ticket buys an interest in a feeder that holds one named fund, where the platform's own layer is 0.25–1% a year and the money is locked for the fund's life. The annual charge is the price of retail access and of liquidity, so compare the two over the full holding period rather than at entry.
At what deal size does a flat SPV fee beat a percentage one?
At a raise of roughly $400,000 on the two published price lists. Sydecar charges 2% of capital raised, banded between $2,500 and $12,500, plus a $2,000 regulatory fee; AngelList charges ≈$8,000 of setup plus ≈$2,000 of blue-sky pass-through, capped together at 10% of the SPV. Below the crossover the banded percentage is cheaper, above it the flat fee is. Then add the lines that are not in either headline: additional closings, distributions, an intermediate pass-through entity, and any carry the platform takes on introduced investors.