Learn

FAQ

General

What makes Ivy Invest different from funds typically offered in a traditional retirement account?

Like many traditional funds or ETFs, Ivy Invest’s Fund can be purchased in a regular retirement account, such as an IRA or Roth IRA. What makes us different is what's inside of our Fund.

Most of the funds typically offered in retirement accounts, such as target-date funds or balanced funds, include only stocks and bonds. These funds miss out on a large part of the broader U.S. economy.

Ivy Invest’s Fund includes a wider range of investments. In addition to stocks and bonds, our portfolio also has meaningful exposure to hard-to-access alternative investments, including private equity, venture capital, private credit, and real estate funds. Every share of our Fund provides a fully allocated portfolio that is professionally managed. You don’t need to piece it together yourself.

One more distinction: Ivy Invest is a closed-end interval fund, not a mutual fund or ETF. Learn more about the Fund here.

What makes Ivy Invest different from a roboadvisor?

Like a roboadvisor, Ivy Invest is designed to simplify your investing by providing you a Fund with a portfolio that you don't have to piece together yourself.

Unlike a roboadvisor, Ivy Invest offers an actively and professionally managed portfolio that follows the investment approach pioneered by large university endowments. Endowment-style investing gives you exposure to a much broader range of investments: stocks and bonds and private equity, venture capital, private credit, special situations, and real estate.

Read more about how Ivy Invest differs from roboadvisors.

How is Ivy Invest able to access these alternative investments that are not generally available in traditional investment accounts?

Ivy Invest has several key advantages that allow us to include alternative investments in our Fund:

Our CIO has been investing in alternative investments for over 17 years. She has the expertise, network, and relationships to access these investments.
Ivy Invest manages a closed-end interval fund. Interval funds can invest in a wider variety of assets, including alternative investments, whereas mutual funds are more restricted.
Our Fund meets the investor qualifications for alternative investments. By investing in our Fund you’re able to access alternative investments, regardless of your own investor qualifications.

What is the benefit of these alternative investments?

Alternative investments cover a wide variety of investments. Alternative investments include private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, private credit, real estate funds, and more. Different types of alternative investments offer different benefits.

Potentially higher returns: Private equity and venture capital have historically offered higher returns than the stock market¹. Private credit has historically offered higher returns than the bond market².

Diversification: Private real estate funds and private credit historically have low correlations to the stock market. When the stock market drops, these low correlation investments can help protect the portfolio.

Taken together, a portfolio that includes alternatives has the potential to offer both better returns and lower volatility (so lower risk) compared to a traditional stock and bond portfolio.

There is a tradeoff, and it’s important to remember. The Fund does not offer daily liquidity and instead offers quarterly repurchases. While we hope everyone sees the benefit of our Fund, we think the Fund can be a fit for those of you that want to keep your money invested a long time.

What do I need in order to invest in the Ivy Invest Fund?

We designed Ivy Invest and our Fund to make endowment-style investing accessible to everyday investors, not just the wealthy. Here are the requirements to invest in our Fund:

You must be a citizen or resident of the United States (i.e., you’ll need a Social Security Number).
Currently, our minimum investment (for Founder Class shares) is $10,000.
Our app is currently available for iOS (and will also run on Macs with Apple Silicon). Web app coming soon for users on other platforms!

When can I sell my shares?

The Fund is structured as a closed-end fund operating as an interval fund. In order to accommodate less liquid assets in their portfolios, interval funds don’t allow on-demand selling of shares, but rather offer shareholders the ability to sell during regular repurchase windows. Our Fund offers quarterly repurchases, meaning that shareholders will have the opportunity to sell their shares four times each year.

Interval funds place a cap on the total number of shares that will be repurchased at any given time. Our Fund has a 5% cap, which means that in any given quarter, the Fund will repurchase up to 5% of its total shares. If the total number of repurchase requests exceed that 5% cap, the Fund will pro-rate each selling shareholder’s request. The Fund is designed for long-term investors. We want to be clear on the long-term nature of our investment strategy and our Fund because we think it’s critical for Ivy Invest and you to be on the same page before you invest.

What kind of tax form will I receive?

Like mutual funds, the Fund issues a standard 1099-DIV form to investors who purchase shares in taxable brokerage accounts. Even though the Fund invests in alternative asset classes, it is unlike private funds, which issue more complicated K-1 forms. For IRA accounts, we issue standard 5498 forms for contributions, and 1099-R forms for any distributions.

Can I trust Ivy Invest?

The security of your investment is our top concern. (After all, we’re Ivy Invest customers too!)

Our flagship portfolio, the Institutional Investment Strategy Fund, is a fund registered with the SEC and regulated under the Investment Company Act of 1940. This is the same framework under which mutual funds are regulated. The Fund is required to comply with all of the regulations and requirements of the Act, including submitting to annual audits, providing financial reports, portfolio transparency, and adhering to specific rules regarding liquidity, tax, and portfolio compliance.

Oversight of the Fund is provided by its Board of Trustees, the majority of whom are independent from Ivy Invest. The Trustees include the former CIO of the $14B Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the former Chief Compliance Officer of Silver Lake Credit, and a former member of the Tufts University Investment Office.

Ivy Invest works with large financial institutions to ensure the safety of your assets. Fifth Third Bank is the Fund’s custodian, responsible for holding all of the Fund’s investments. MUFG Investor Services, part of the $2.9T Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, serves as the Fund’s Administrator and Transfer Agent and handles all movement of cash between investors and the Fund. Ivy Invest never touches your cash or securities.

What is an interval fund?

Ivy Invest's Fund is structured as an interval fund. In many ways, interval funds are similar to mutual funds:

Interval funds and mutual funds are both highly regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Investment Company Act of 1940.
Interval funds, like mutual funds, are transparent and standardized: both are required to provide consistent, periodic public filings and reports to investors.

Interval funds also have some major differences relative to mutual funds:

Interval funds can invest in a wider range of assets, including less liquid assets like private equity, private credit, and real estate funds.
Interval funds are technically considered closed-end funds, whereas mutual funds are open-end funds. Open-end funds offer daily purchase and sales. Closed-end interval fund shares can be purchased daily, but can only be sold during regular repurchase windows. Our Fund offers quarterly repurchases.

Retirement

Can I transfer my IRA or rollover my 401(k) into the Ivy Invest Fund?

Yes! Ivy Invest's Fund, with its investments into less liquid assets like private equity and real assets, can be an excellent fit for retirement assets. We support traditional IRA, Roth IRA, and SEP IRA accounts, which all allow you to grow your assets tax-free. Cash from an existing IRA account can be easily transferred to Ivy Invest, and most 401(k) providers also make it easy to rollover your prior employer account into an Ivy Invest IRA.

Will I have to pay taxes if I move an IRA or 401(k) to an Ivy Invest IRA?

IRA transfers and 401(k) rollovers are typically tax-free. When rolling over a 401(k), we always recommend doing a direct rollover, where the funds are sent directly to the Fund's transfer agent. If you do an indirect rollover, the funds will be mailed to you via check, and you'll have 60 days once you receive it to send it to the Fund's transfer agent (or you may be subject to tax and penalties). We're always here to help: support@ivyinvest.co (and we always recommend consulting a tax professional for any specific questions).

Do I need a self-directed IRA to invest?

Because our Fund is a registered investment company, it can be held in a traditional IRA or Roth IRA account, and does not require a self-directed IRA. This allows us to offer the Fund without the significant fees typical of self-directed IRA accounts – the only additional charge for Ivy Invest IRA and Roth IRA accounts is a $3/year account maintenance fee.

ARTICLES

Illiquidity
Premium

Ivy Invest vs.
Roboadvisors

What is endowment-style investing?

Asset Class:
Private Equity

Asset Class:
Private Credit

Asset Class:
Real Estate

Asset Class:
Public Equities

Wendy's Newsletter:
Ask a CIO

FUND DOCUMENTS

Fact Sheet

Prospectus

Annual Report