Has this happened to you? You hear about a hot fund, go online and do your due diligence only to be turned away like Dorothy at the door to the Emerald City?

It's happened to me, and countless other mutual fund investors over the years, and if I've learned one thing it's this: Don't give up!

As the editor of The Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, I've heard from investors over the years who have been turned away at the door after strong track records prompted fund managers to close a hot fund. It can be worse than waiting in line for a table on the Upper East Side of Manhattan!

But like the old saying says, "When one door closes… a window opens." And today, I'm going to show you four ways to prop open the door on a closed fund!

When the Front Door Slams Shut… Go Around the Back!

Mutual funds close because fund managers have limitations on how much cash they can handle. When a fund has a hot streak of performance, investors hoping to join the party pour their money in, and managers can't always find places to put the new cash. Sometimes that's because of the fund's investment mandates or SEC regulations, and sometimes it's just because there's a lack of good buying opportunities in the market.

Some funds only close to new investors. That means if you had an account in the fund when it closed, you can keep putting money into it. But some funds close completely. That means no one can put any more money into the fund. Either way, if you don't already have an account in the fund, you're locked out.

4 Ways to Get Into A Closed Mutual Fund

If a fund closes its doors, investors still have four options to get in on the action:

Tip #1 – Wait until the fund reopens (if it reopens).

Believe it or not, funds don't always remain closed forever. In the past 2 years, Vanguard reopened several of its top-performing closed funds to investors in its Flagship program (meaning they are kind of open, but not entirely… I'll get to that in a moment), and a series of well-known value investing shops from Tweedy Browne and Dodge & Cox, to Southeastern Asset Management and Third Avenue, reopened their own closed funds after the markets took a 15% drop.