A fund is a good way to go, Ironically it is mainly designed to protect you the Fund Manager even though the SEC is designed to protect investors. There are different types of funds, states have rules and the SEC has rules, make sure an attorney has input in your offering documents. Most funds are a derivative of section 505-506 in regulation D of the SEC rules. Each type of fund has different fund member requirements, some allow non accredited investors and others do not. To put yourself in the safest position you should consider taking investments from accredited investors only, your risk in taking money from non accredited investors is much higher if things go sideways. You can set the minimum amount of investment, its not a regulatory issue, however managing small investors can be time consuming
