Let’s talk income investments that are usually reserved for rich folks: deal-making private-equity (PE) funds! : Let’s talk income investments that are usually reserved for rich folks: deal-making private-equity (PE) funds! Usually there’s a sizable fee to get into PE. Unless you know the secret knock at the back-door entrance, which is more our style anyway. These business development companies (BDCs) exist thanks to a perfectly legal loophole that lets anyone with an IRA or brokerage account tap into not just one or two private-market companies, but dozens at a time.