Citizen Mint

FAQs

Why you should join us in making investments better for all

Getting Started

Citizen Mint provides direct access to well-vetted impact investments in the private markets. 

Our Value-Add: private market impact investments require a high level of vetting and due diligence, which the Citizen Mint team is especially well-equipped to provide. 

Our investment team has decades of experience managing multi-billion-dollar portfolios at wealth management firms and large institutional asset managers. This includes working to develop ESG, sustainability and impact investing programs in the public and private markets.

In order to make an investment there are three steps:

  1. Identity verification – in most cases we are able to do this automatically upon sign-up.
    Note: As part of this process we are required by the SEC to obtain SSN/DOB/Address information for know your customer (KYC) purposes. This information is also needed to produce a K1 or 1099 at the end of each investment year. For more information on our privacy policy, please see here.
  2. Link a bank account – we use this account to fund your investments. This will also be the account that we send distributions to over time.
  3. Verify accreditation – many investments on the site require accreditation verification. This process includes uploading documentation that confirms your accreditation status. See the requirements of an accredited investor here.

Please send your emails to contact@citizenmint.com and we will be in contact as soon as possible.

Simply put, private investments are not traded on a public exchange. They are increasingly an area of focus for many impact investors as a way to diversify out of the public markets, while potentially helping to fund a higher level of impact and capturing a competitive market return.

Total assets invested in the private markets globally have grown dramatically over the last two decades, to $10 trillion as of the end of 2021 (McKinsey & Co). We do not see this growth slowing as many individuals and institutional investors continue to diversify into the private markets. Further, new opportunities are constantly arising in the private markets.

Citizen Mint is a way to participate in these new opportunities. Our platform presents private market investments that are accessible (have relatively low minimums) and which our research indicates are likely to provide material, measurable, and intentional positive impact on society or the environment as well as a solid financial return.

We are constantly reviewing the impact investment landscape to find the best impact and financial opportunities for the Citizen Mint community. in practice, This means performing due diligence on hundreds of opportunities from a qualitative and quantitative perspective as well as to determine the prospective positive impact of the opportunity. We review private investments in real estate, infrastructure (which includes solar and wind investments), private debt, private equity and venture capital.

When a new opportunity is fully due diligence and approved by Our investment committee it is added to the site for investors select and invest capital. an investor must have completed both bank linking and accreditation checks to invest.

Read more about Our investment Philosophy & Process here.

Impact investing is not philanthropy. You do not need to sacrifice getting a return on your money to have a positive impact. We work daily to make that happen, focusing our due diligence on three metrics:

  • Return: What is the expected return on the project or opportunity?
  • Risk: What risk are you taking on and is the expected return high enough to compensate for that risk?
  • Impact: Does the investment provide material, measurable, and additional impact that could not have been accomplished by other means?

Ultimately, the return and risk metrics are very similar to non-impact investments, while also proving the necessary positive societal or environmental outcomes.

We believe that there has never been a better time to be an impact investor. The number of investable opportunities targeting one or more social or environmental positive outcomes has increased dramatically due to technology, innovation and increased awareness. Projects could include more efficient renewable power technologies, affordable micro-finance solutions, and ways to mitigate the significant water shortages expected in the coming decades.

To start, we are focusing on pertinent issues such as housing affordability, climate change, and community wellness:

  • Affordable Housing: Investing in multi-family affordably priced rentals to provide quality, safe and affordable housing for households making between 50%-80% of the area’s median income (AMI).
  • Renewable Energy: Investing in solar and wind development throughout the US to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and the negative consequence of carbon emissions on the environment.
  • Community Development Loans: Support economic growth and opportunity in disadvantaged communities through loaning of private capital.

Many people get confused around the terminology of investments, especially between Impact Investing, SRI, and ESG. They get used interchangeably but they’re actually very different.

  • Socially Responsible Investing or SRI: Simply put, you avoid investments you think will cause damage to society or the environment. Avoiding investments in cigarette and alcohol producers, nuclear power operators, weapons manufacturing, and fossil-fuel producers are common examples.
  • Environmental, Social and Governance or ESG Investing: The goal is to invest in companies striving to do what’s best for all their stakeholders — employees, customers, local communities and shareholders, while also limiting negative impact on society and the environment. ESG is more about how companies behave than the output of beneficial goods or services.
  • Impact Investing: The focus is on specific investment opportunities, often in the private markets. These investments aim to solve an environmental or social challenge, while also providing a profit. Impact investments are material, measurable and intentional, and tend to be more targeted in order to address very specific needs or challenges. That said, we recognize that many of these needs and challenges are interrelated.

If you are not a U.S. citizen, but live and work in the U.S., you may be eligible to invest.

Citizen Mint is available to investors with a valid EIN#, TIN#, or SSN#. You’ll also need a U.S. bank account as well as a U.S. mailing address.

We hope to be accessible to international investors in the future.

Investor Accreditation

At the current point in time we accept investments from accredited investors, qualified purchasers and financial advisors acting on behalf of clients. We are fervently working on additional opportunities for non-accredited investors so stay tuned!

To be an Accredited Investor you must meet one of the following requirements:

  • Net worth, excluding primary residence, higher than $1 million. If you qualify based on net worth, you can upload bank or brokerage statements that show these assets.
  • Earned income above $200,000 a year ($300,000 if married) in each of the past two years. Required submission is your W2 documents for the two most recent tax years.
  • Broker’s license in good standing (Series 7, 65 or 82). Required submission is your CRD number.
  • If investing for a trust, total assets in the trust must total at least $5 million. If you qualify based on total assets in the trust, you can upload bank or brokerage statements that show these assets.

 

Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of each investment before investing.

Investments in the Fund are not bank deposits (and thus not insured by the FDIC or by any other federal governmental agency) and are not guaranteed by Citizen Mint or any other party.

Generally, an entity will satisfy the SEC’s definitions if it either (1) has total assets in excess of $5,000,000 and has not been formed for the purpose of participating in a specific investment or (2) is wholly owned by accredited investors.

Impact

In most projects, we have pre-determined metrics that are discussed with the sponsor or fund manager as measurable key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs help us measure and report on the impact of a project over time. As an example, for an alternative energy project we may report on: metric tons of carbon abated (not released into the atmosphere), terawatt-hours of electricity generated, # of renewable energy jobs create, GHG emissions reduced/avoided directly through use of solar and wind energy, # of gallons of water saved compared to coal, etc. We will also report on equivalent numbers that provide a easier to digest format for the Citizen Mint community. This could include: carbon abatement equivalent to # of passenger vehicles driven for one year or carbon sequestered by # acres of US forest for a year.

In many cases we will be depending on the manager to track and provide these numbers to us with a review process in place to confirm they are accurate.

When you invest for impact, you are prioritizing what you think is important for society and the environment while also aiming for financial return. It is possible to achieve both. For instance, lending money to a wind or solar project can help reduce fossil-fuel use, while providing you with an income stream similar to that from publicly traded corporate bonds.

We at Citizen Mint believe that investing has always had an impact, whether negative, neutral or positive. At Citizen Mint you can choose a positive impact and define how.

The process of eliminating managers who may be greenwashing starts with reviewing the teams backgrounds and the impact they have had over time. We partner with experienced managers who have shown real and measurable impact over multiple previous projects. In general they are specialists in the space and do not have other products or investment vehicles that have competing priorities or significant negative externalities.

We further independently review and agree on all impact key performance indicators in the final stages of the due diligence process. This allows us to keep the manager accountable for the impact over time.

We focus on investment opportunities in three impact areas:

  1. Environment: Alternative energy sources, resource sustainability, and resource efficiency
  2. Empowerment: Diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI), financial inclusion, education & job training
  3. Community Health & Wellness: Affordable housing, healthcare & nutrition, product responsibility, quality jobs and access to basic services (i.e. internet, utilities, transport, etc.)

Citizen Mint has signed on to several initiatives that show our commitment to the impact space and doing good for people and planet. These include:

  • UN PRI Signatory: Signing this internationally-recognized Principles for Responsible Investment allows Citizen Mint o publicly demonstrate our commitment to responsible investment. As a signatory, we are part of a community of the most highly respected global asset managers seeking to build a more sustainable financial system.
  • UN Sustainable Develop Goals (UN SDGs): We are committed to the goals of the UN SDGs and will be displaying the impact of all investments on the platform through the lense of how it impacts these 17 important goals.
  • 1% Pledge: We have pledged 1% of profits to charitable organizations joining the likes of Salesforce, Atlassian, and many other members of the tech and VC community to give back to the communities we operate in.

Investment Process

The minimum investment amount can be as low as $10,000, but in most cases will be $25,000.

Each Citizen Mint investment partnership is incorporated under Delaware law. In the event the General Partner (Citizen Mint) files for bankruptcy or is declared insolvent, the General Partner would be deemed to have withdrawn from the Partnership. Pursuant to the agreements governing each partnership, investors would then decide how to replace the General Partner and continue or dissolve the fund. In this case, each limited partner continues to own their interest in the investment given the separation of assets from the general business.

When applicable, distributions are typically made quarterly from available operating cash flow and are automatically deposited into investors’ bank accounts. Size and timing of distributions depend on the business plan and performance of each investment. Investors are notified of upcoming distributions and are able to track their distribution history through our online platform.

Investments

The initial funding period for your commitment is up to 2 years. For each investment, we typically target 3-8 year hold periods. Please review the Investment Advisory Agreement for a complete description of the commitment term and investment guidelines.

Maintaining the integrity and security of our client’s and partner’s data is a priority for Citizen Mint. We address security in three major components, physical security, corporate IT security, and production security, to maintain industry standards.

At the current point in time there are no sales or transferability of securities offered on the platform.

Each investment is an ownership interest in a limited partnership or other entity managed by Citizen Mint Advisors LLC, a subsidiary of Citizen Mint Inc., which is governed by the organizational and subscription documents applicable to that specific transaction.

You will receive an aggregated tax reporting package with K-1s at the end of each year, as necessary based on the structuring of the deal). Throughout the life of each investment, you will also receive detailed asset-level information including investment memorandum, due diligence summaries, and ongoing quarterly reporting.

K-1 tax forms are distributed to investors in the weeks leading up to April 15th.

Fees on the Citizen Mint platform range from 1-2%. Citizen Mint looks to actively negotiate with managers and sponsors on behalf of our clients to provide possible overall fee structure to any deal we underwrite and put on the platform.

You can link your bank account to your Citizen Mint account via our integration with Plaid. When you are ready to request an allocation to one of our investments, you will be prompted to submit your bank information as you go through the signing flow.

You can withdraw your funds to the bank account you linked to your account with our Plaid integration.

If you are having trouble logging in, please contact us at contact@citizenmint.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

If you did not receive your email verification code, please check your spam folder. If you still cannot find your verification code, please email us at contact@citizenmint.com.

Citizen Mint needs to verify your identification because of federal regulations intended to deter illegal or fraudulent activity.

In most cases, identify can be verified through our back-end identify verification provider. If we need further information, we will ask you to upload either your driver’s license or passport, and in some cases your social security card.

Your identification documents will be verified by our team and our certified 3rd party vendor.

Rule 506(b):

Rule 506(b) allows investors to “self-verify” their accreditation information, certifying the information they have provided is accurate and truthful. Offerings can only be solicited to investors with existing, substantive relationships – in the Citizen Mint case, this would be investors signed up on the platform and approved for accredited access prior to an offering being launched. The offering cannot be broadly (“generally”) solicited to new investors outside of the platform.

Rule 506(c):

Rule 506(c) does allow for general solicitation of an investment offering, without the requirement for an existing relationship with the investor prior to soliciting the investment. Thus, the offering can be generally advertised both to existing investor relationships as well as new potential investors that haven’t yet created an account with Citizen Mint.

Along with the more lenient allowance for general solicitation comes a more onerous requirement for accreditation verification, however. Investors cannot “self-verify” under Rule 506(c) – there must be “reasonable steps” taken to verify the accreditation of each investor. The accreditation verification can be accomplished by one of the following:

• Providing tax returns to prove accreditation by income
• Providing verification of net worth (via brokerage or bank statements) net of any liabilities (typically verified through a “soft” credit check)
• Providing written confirmation from an attorney or certified accountant

Decisions in an LLC are governed by a document called an “operating agreement”. While every operating agreement is slightly different, they usually include a manager (who may also be a member) and limited members. The manager typically makes all of the day-to-day decisions and the limited members act as passive investors on the transaction. The manager can determine how much cash to distribute to the limited members versus how much to hold in reserve and assess possible sales for the property. There are certain activities that might mandate a vote by the limited members and the limited members can typically take action if the managing member defaults on the terms of the agreement or is grossly negligent.

One of the benefits of investing in real estate equity through limited liability companies (LLCs) is that LLCs can be treated as partnerships for tax purposes. Partnerships generally are not taxed at the entity level (other than annual franchise taxes and filing fees) and can “pass through” applicable items of income, loss and depreciation to their members.

Non-cash depreciation deductions can shelter or eliminate the amount taxable income that may be otherwise passed through to an investor from a real estate equity investment, particularly in the early stages of the investment. As a result, cash distributions received by an investor, in a year when there is no corresponding pass-through of taxable income (again, due to depreciation deductions), may result in lower or deferred taxes.

The special purpose entity (an LLC) you own when you invest in an equity transaction reports your annual share of income and loss and distributions on federal and state K-1s that you can then use to prepare your tax return. While the special purpose entities (the LLCs) that are formed for each equity transaction typically are Delaware entities, there may be filing requirements and tax liabilities in other states depending on the details of a particular transaction, your state of residence, and the location of the investment property.

Citizen Mint and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction. See offering documents for additional details, disclosures, and disclaimers.

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