July 10, 2014
Dear SEC,
I've worked in the financial industry for nearly 6 years and the startup community since then. I am writing because I am deeply concerned about the possible increase in wealth thresholds for Accredited Investors.
While it is certainly laudable to protect poor and non-savvy investors from scam artists, the current Accredited Investor rules exclude the majority of the middle class from funding startups and participating in the gains that occur when they succeed. This creates a massive bottleneck on economic growth and further widens the gap between the rich and everyone else. I urge you to adopt the suggestions in the comment described below to improve access between middle class investors and startups, while still protecting the vulnerable from scams.
Thank you for your consideration,
Ben Littauer
===
I agree with the comment submitted by Kiran Lingam at SeedInvest on July 8, 2014 available at http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-06-13/s70613-546.pdf that raising the accredited investor thresholds would be disastrous for startups, job creation and the U.S. economy. I believe the SEC should refrain from increasing these thresholds and should also adopt knowledge/experience based standards for an individual to become an accredited investor.