Many European countries France, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxemboug are allowing investors with only a few thousand dollars to invest in hedge funds, The Wall Street Journal reports. This is a far cry from the requirements in the U.S. that an investor by accredited with a minimum net worth of $1 million or more and have earned $200,000 or more in the past two years.
"Europe has and continues to be ahead of the States in terms of acceptance of hedge-fund products from an [individual] investor perspective," Barry Colvin, president of
And although the U.K. has rather strict restrictions on hedge funds, now that Germany has loosened its own, some believe the U.K. might change its mind so as not to be surpassed by Germany as a hedge fund hub.
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