Accredited investor
What it means
A legal status, based on income, net worth, or professional credentials, required to buy certain private-market investments — including most angel-investing and pre-IPO opportunities. Requirements vary by country.
Why it matters
It's the gate that separates public-market investing (open to everyone) from the private-market and angel-investing world covered elsewhere on this site.
A worked example
In the United States the test is essentially a wealth screen. An individual generally qualifies with income above roughly US$200,000 for the last two years (or US$300,000 jointly with a spouse) and a reasonable expectation of the same again, or with a net worth above US$1 million excluding the value of their primary home.
Meeting either threshold unlocks access to private offerings — startup rounds, private funds, certain real-estate deals — that cannot legally be marketed to the general public. Failing them does not mean you cannot invest; it means those particular doors stay closed.
What people get wrong
The label reads like a qualification and it is not one. Nobody is assessed on knowledge, experience or judgement — the rules ask how much money you have. The premise is that someone wealthy enough can absorb losing an entire investment and can pay for advice, not that they know more.
That matters because the offerings on the other side of the threshold are the least regulated, least liquid and least transparent ones available. Being permitted to buy them is not evidence you should, and the status is sometimes presented — particularly in sales material — as though it were a compliment rather than a wealth test.
How this works in Latin America
Most Latin American markets have their own version of this category rather than using the US definition. Brazil's securities regulator has long distinguished a "qualified" investor from a "professional" one using investment-balance thresholds, with the professional tier set considerably higher. Mexico uses an "inversionista calificado" concept with its own income and asset tests.
The thresholds are periodically revised, so the specific figures should be checked against the current rule from the relevant regulator — CVM in Brazil, CNBV in Mexico, the SFC in Colombia, the CNV in Argentina, the CMF in Chile — rather than taken from any secondary source, including this one. The structure is consistent across them even where the numbers differ: a wealth or income test that unlocks access to private, lightly regulated offerings.