The US Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed rule changes designed to widen retail access to private markets. The package would let advisers to regulated funds charge performance fees and would make interval and closed-end funds more flexible. Together, the changes could make it easier for private equity managers to offer their strategies to individual investors.

Performance-based pay has long been a defining feature of private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund strategies, but it has largely been limited to a small group of eligible investors. According to the SEC, extending the same incentive to advisers of regulated funds could encourage them to launch private market strategies in those vehicles. Under the proposal, performance fees would be capped at 20% of a regulated fund’s net gains over a specified period.

The second proposal targets the fund structures most often used to package private assets for wealthy individuals. Interval funds would be allowed to hold monthly repurchases, make more frequent discretionary repurchases, and time repurchases to suit their portfolios’ liquidity. SEC chairman Paul Atkins said “investor demand for private market investment opportunities is growing”. He described the effort as complementing President Trump’s executive order on opening alternative assets to 401(k) savers.

The proposals have divided opinion. Critics argue the push benefits Wall Street at the expense of retail investors, who may not fully understand the fees and risks of assets that are hard to value and cannot be redeemed quickly. Comment periods will run for 60 days after the documents appear in the Federal Register.