You can spend $187 to take the Series 65 exam to prove that you know what you're doing and become an accredited investor that way - unlike the Series 7, you do not need your employer to sponsor you.
Why do i have to be qualified to give advice to unlock my own life first? And how can i just pay my way out of knowing all of this if i inhereted a $1M?
https://www.nasaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Series-65-T...
It's true that the Series 65 is more than one would need for solo investing. But the alternative was for them to come up with some sort of new test for the very small number of people who want to get into opaque, illiquid, high-risk investments. This seems like a pretty reasonable compromise.