Pre-IPO Investing Platforms vs Investing Through Your Advisor: What's the Difference?
Erik James Roberts — Founder & CIO, Infinitus Wealth Management. Purple Heart recipient, Wharton MBA.
Updated October 8, 2026
Pre-IPO investing platforms and investing through your advisor differ in four ways: who does the work of sourcing and vetting the deal, what you pay and to whom, where the shares are held, and who is accountable for deciding whether the position belongs in your portfolio. A platform gives you a marketplace and a login. An advisor who offers pre-IPO access through the custodian gives you the same type of single-company exposure inside the account you already have, with a fiduciary responsible for sizing it against everything else you own.
Both routes have earned their place. The secondary platforms built the modern pre-IPO market, brought transparency to prices that used to live in private phone calls, and lowered minimums to a level an individual accredited investor can actually meet. That progress is the reason an advisor can now offer the same kind of access through a brokerage custodian. The question for most investors is not which route is legitimate, because both are. The question is which one fits how they want their wealth managed.
Pre-IPO Investing Is Available to Infinitus Clients
Infinitus clients have access to pre-IPO investing in select late-stage private companies. These are businesses that have not yet listed on a public exchange, the stage where much of a company's growth now happens before everyday investors can buy a share. Availability rotates, is limited to accredited investors, and is never guaranteed, and securities regulations limit what we can say publicly about specific offerings, including which companies are available at any given time. If you are an accredited investor with a company in mind, contact us. We will talk through whether a position like this fits your overall portfolio, and if it does, we can check whether that company is currently available.
The practical side is simple. There is no separate platform, no outside login, and no standalone paperwork firm. Eligible clients subscribe through our custodian, Altruist, with digital signatures, fund the investment from cash in their account, and once the subscription settles the position appears on the same statements as their other holdings.
How Pre-IPO Investing Platforms Work
Pre-IPO investing platforms are online marketplaces, usually operated by a registered broker-dealer, where accredited investors buy exposure to shares of private companies from employees and early investors who want liquidity. In most cases you do not receive stock in the company directly. You buy a unit in a special-purpose vehicle, or SPV, that the platform forms to hold a block of shares in one company. That structure keeps the company's shareholder list clean and lets the platform break a large block into smaller pieces.
The major platforms publish their terms, and the numbers are useful to know. As of mid-2026, EquityZen lists a standard minimum of $10,000, with select deals at $5,000, and charges buyers a one-time transaction fee that it illustrates at 2.5 percent, so a $50,000 investment costs $51,250 all in. Hiive runs a live order book with a standard $25,000 minimum per transaction, rising to $100,000 or more for the most in-demand names, and shifts most of its fee to the seller. Forge Global lists a $100,000 standard minimum for direct transactions with lower minimums on certain fund offerings, and total transaction costs in the range of 2 to 5 percent. Terms change often, so confirm them on each platform before planning around them.
What the platforms do well is price discovery and reach. Several list thousands of private companies, show recent transaction prices, and handle the company's right of first refusal, which is the company's option to block a transfer or buy the shares itself. For an investor who wants to shop a wide menu and negotiate price, that is real value.
What the platforms do not do is tell you whether the position belongs in your portfolio. That part is yours. The platform's role ends when the trade settles, and the position then lives in a separate account with its own login, its own statement, and its own K-1 at tax time. If you work with an advisor, that holding sits outside what the advisor can see and manage alongside the rest of your money.
How Investing in Pre-IPO Shares Through Your Advisor Works
Investing in pre-IPO shares through your advisor uses the same building block, a single-company vehicle, but moves it inside the relationship you already have. At Infinitus, clients access single-company pre-IPO vehicles through Altruist, our custodian. A sponsor sources the shares and forms the vehicle, the client subscribes at a fixed price per unit, and the position settles into the client's existing Altruist account. It appears on the same statement as the client's individual stocks and bonds, and it is managed by the same team that manages everything else.
Three things change when the route runs through an advisor.
The sourcing and vetting are done for you. We review the offering documents, the sponsor's fee structure, the pricing relative to the company's last funding round and recent secondary trades, and the terms of the vehicle itself before a client ever sees it. A platform shows you a list; an advisor shows you what passed a filter.
The decision is made in context. A pre-IPO position is illiquid for a period that is usually measured in years, and a company can stay private longer than anyone planned or never list at all. Whether a given allocation makes sense depends on your time horizon, your liquidity needs, how concentrated you already are, and your tax picture. That is portfolio construction, and it is what a fiduciary advisor is responsible for. The platforms are clear that they do not provide it.
The accountability is clear. When Infinitus brings a pre-IPO vehicle into a client's portfolio, we are acting as a fiduciary. We owe the client a duty to act in their interest, to disclose conflicts, and to size the position appropriately. Infinitus receives no commission, placement fee, or sponsor compensation on these investments. They fall under our standard advisory fee of 1.00 percent or less depending on assets. Any sponsor fee is disclosed in the subscription documents before anyone signs.
Because these are private placements, the specific companies available at any given time are shared with clients, not published. What we can say publicly is how the process works, that the company is named before anyone commits, that the subscription price is fixed at signing, and that the holding lives in the account the client already has.
Pre-IPO Investing Platforms vs Your Advisor: Side by Side
The table below compares the two routes on the dimensions investors ask about most. Platform figures are published terms as of mid-2026 and vary by deal.
Pre-IPO investing platforms | Through your advisor (Infinitus via Altruist) | |
|---|---|---|
Who sources the deal | The platform, from selling shareholders | A sponsor, reviewed by your advisor |
Who decides if it fits your portfolio | You | Your fiduciary advisor, with you |
Typical minimum | $5,000 to $100,000+ depending on platform and company | Varies by offering |
Transaction fee | Roughly 2.5 to 5 percent, buyer or seller side depending on platform | No Infinitus commission; sponsor fees disclosed in documents |
Ongoing fee | Generally none on the SPV; fund products carry management fees | Standard advisory fee, 1.00 percent or less, covering the whole portfolio |
Where it is held | Separate platform account | Your existing Altruist account |
Tax reporting | Separate K-1 from the platform's SPV | K-1 from the vehicle, coordinated with your other reporting |
Company choice | Wide menu, you pick | Curated set, you pick from what is offered |
Price | Negotiated on the marketplace | Fixed subscription price at signing |
Accreditation | Required | Required |
Minimums, fees, and terms are illustrative ranges drawn from published platform materials as of October 2026 and are subject to change. Confirm the terms of any specific investment in its offering documents.
When a Platform Is the Better Fit
Pre-IPO investing platforms are the right tool for some investors, and it is worth saying so plainly.
If you want access to a specific company that your advisor's custodian does not currently offer, a platform with thousands of listings is the place to look. If you enjoy negotiating price and reading a live order book, the platforms built that experience. If you manage your own money and do not want an advisor involved, a platform is the natural route. And if your check size is at the low end of the range, the platforms with $5,000 to $10,000 minimums will get you in the door sooner than a vehicle with a higher floor.
The trade-off is that everything after the purchase is also yours: the sizing, the monitoring, the lock-up and distribution mechanics after a listing, and the question of how the position fits with the rest of what you own.
When Investing Through Your Advisor Is the Better Fit
Investing through your advisor fits investors who already think of their wealth as one portfolio and want pre-IPO exposure to be part of it rather than parked beside it.
That describes most of our clients. An executive who holds a large block of employer stock, a business owner who just sold a company, or an athlete with a concentrated earning window has a specific answer to how much illiquid private exposure makes sense, and that answer comes from the whole picture. Putting the pre-IPO position in the same account as the public stocks and bonds means it is visible in every review, counted in every allocation decision, and included when we think about liquidity needs for the years ahead.
There is also a simpler argument. One statement, one advisor, one fee that covers the whole portfolio, and no separate login to remember. For a client who is busy building a career or a business, that is not a small thing.
A Word on Pooled Pre-IPO Funds
Some pre-IPO investing platforms also offer pooled funds that bundle several private companies into one investment, and 2026 brought a listed closed-end fund of private companies that trades on the New York Stock Exchange with no accreditation requirement and a 2 percent annual management fee. These products widen access, and that is a good thing for the market. They also hand the company selection to a manager, carry ongoing fees, and in the listed case can trade at a premium or discount to the value of what they hold.
At Infinitus we build portfolios from individual securities, and we extend that to private companies. We would rather a client own a named company at a known price than a basket chosen by someone else. That is a preference about how we manage money, not a verdict on the products, and a client who wants broad exposure to the private market can hold a pooled vehicle. We would simply want it sized and understood like everything else.
Why I Built It This Way
I enlisted immediately after high school, served in the infantry with the 101st Airborne, and was wounded in combat in Baghdad on my second deployment. I discovered investing through the Wall Street Warfighters Foundation while I was recovering, and I have spent the years since then working as a financial and wealth advisor and earning a Wharton MBA.
When the secondary platforms opened the private market to individual investors, they solved an access problem that had kept these companies behind closed doors for decades. What they left open was the judgment problem: whether a given investor, with a given picture, should own a given position at a given size. That problem is what an advisor is for. Offering pre-IPO access through Altruist lets me answer both at once, the access and the judgment, inside one relationship.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use a pre-IPO investing platform and an advisor at the same time?
Yes. Many investors hold positions on a platform from before they worked with an advisor, and some continue to buy there. The practical step is to make sure your advisor knows about every outside position so it is counted in your overall allocation and liquidity planning.
Are pre-IPO investing platforms safe?
The major platforms operate through registered broker-dealers and file their vehicles with the SEC, and their fees and minimums are published. The investments themselves are private placements, which means they are illiquid, hard to value, and can lose their full value regardless of which route you use. The platform's registration tells you about the intermediary, not about the outcome of the investment.
What does it cost to invest in pre-IPO shares through a platform?
Published buyer-side transaction fees range from about 2.5 percent to 5 percent depending on the platform, with some shifting the fee to the seller. Minimums range from $5,000 to $100,000 or more depending on the platform and the company. Confirm current terms directly with each platform.
What does it cost to invest in pre-IPO shares through Infinitus?
Infinitus charges no commission or separate fee. The position falls under the standard advisory fee of 1.00 percent or less, which covers the entire portfolio. Any sponsor fee attached to the vehicle is disclosed in the subscription documents before signing.
Where are pre-IPO shares held when I invest through my advisor?
In your existing brokerage account at the custodian. For Infinitus clients, that is Altruist, and the position appears on the same statement as your other investments. Account types eligible for these vehicles are expanding, so confirm current eligibility.
Do I still need to be an accredited investor if I invest through an advisor?
Yes. The accreditation requirement comes from securities law, not from the platform or the advisor. Both the advisor and the client attest to the client's accredited status before subscribing.
Start With a Conversation
If you are an accredited investor and want to understand how a pre-IPO allocation fits inside a custom portfolio of individual stocks and bonds, the first step is an introductory conversation. We will walk through both routes against your actual picture, and if the topic calls for a CPA or securities attorney you do not already have, we can introduce you to one.
Important Disclosures
Infinitus Wealth Management is a registered investment adviser. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice, an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Private placements are available only to accredited investors, are illiquid, may lose all of their value, and are offered solely through formal offering documents, which investors should read in full before investing. No specific company, price, or availability is referenced here; any such information is provided to eligible clients privately. Third-party platforms are named for comparison only; Infinitus has no affiliation with them, and their fees, minimums, and terms are drawn from their published materials as of the dates noted and are subject to change. All charts are illustrative. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Consult your own tax and legal advisers regarding your situation.
