According to a May 30, 2014 article in The New York Times, “As a young lawyer in New York, Robert Rich sometimes bought stocks based on tips he received while playing squash at the Yale Club. Most of them did not do well, so eventually he chose to put his money into mutual funds and focus on his work.
But then the itch for more control and the potential for bigger gains got the best of him and now, at 76, Mr. Rich has put nearly a fifth of his wealth into private equity — an illiquid, risky asset class with returns that range from double digits to a complete loss of principal.
In this, Mr. Rich has been at the vanguard of a wave of affluent do-it-yourselfers investing in private equity by buying into funds that focus on a sector of the economy or on direct investments in particular companies…
Despite the risks and responsibility of assessing the investment, a self-directed account that is not someone’s sole source of income could be a good match of retirement money and private equity investments. “
