* Accredited Investors:To be an accredited investor, a person must demonstrate an annual income of $200,000, or $300,000 for joint income, for the last two years with expectation of earning the same or higher income. An individual must have earned income above the thresholds either alone or with a spouse over the last three years. The income test cannot be satisfied by showing one year of an individual's income and the next two years of joint income with a spouse. The exception to this rule is when a person is married within the period of conducting a test. A person is also considered an accredited investor if he has a net worth exceeding $1 million, either individually or jointly with his spouse. The SEC also considers a person to be an accredited investor if he is a general partner, executive officer, director or a related combination thereof for the of unregistered securities.
** Qualified Eligible Persons: A Qualified Eligible Person must meet the following two requirements: 1) the investor must first be an accredited investor. The most common ways for this are to either have a net worth of $1,000,000 or more OR an annual income of $200,000 or more for the last two years OR, combined with a spouse, $300,000 per year for two years, 2) the investor must meet an additional portfolio requirement, which is having $2,000,000 in securities holdings OR $200,000 in margin on deposit with a Futures Commission Merchant OR a combination of the two (for example, $1,000,000 in securities and $100,000 in margin).