Some financial companies are looking to open PE up to more people. I think the floor is still high - around $1M up front and $4M in liquid assets for additional funding (or something like that). I think there are some regulator restrictions on accredited investors. I would bet there's a legal loophole where you could group people into a mutual fund type structure but for private equity using some sort of legal entity.
The restriction is one of: $1 million net worth (excluding primary residence), or $250k/yr income. You meet that floor, you can buy private shares on secondary markets. I don't think it's a loophole to pool accredited investors into a company, it's called a private equity firm :)
The loophole is that regular people can become "accredited investors" by simply lying. In most cases no one actually checks the numbers they write down for assets and income. I am not recommending committing fraud here, but this is extremely common.
