New York

FOR decades, David M Rubenstein has persuaded big institutions such as pension funds and university endowments to invest billions of dollars with his private equity firm, the Carlyle Group, promising them better returns than the general market. But in recent months, he has crisscrossed the country in a campaign to attract a type of investor that has relatively little experience in this industry: individuals.

Carlyle, the Washington-based giant that Mr Rubenstein co-founded in 1987, is at the forefront of an effort to open the cloistered and risky world of private equity to doctors, lawyers, well-heeled entrepreneurs and others with a brokerage account or, one day, a robust 401(k). The firm is close to establishing a new way to give individual investors direct access to a selection of Carlyle's private equity funds, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorised to speak publicly about the private fundraising campaign in progress.