ComClass and NotInheritable

[clarkgriswald]

Is there a way to reference a .NET class in COM without having to instantiate it?

Here is my .NET interop class signature:

<ComClass(InputMask.ClassId, InputMask.InterfaceId, InputMask.EventsId)>
Public NotInheritable Class InputMask

From COM, I can access the properties and methods at design time, but at run-time it balks because the class is not instantiated. Not the end of the world, but I would like to access read-only properties and call functions from my interop class without having to instantiate the class in COM if possible. Perhaps the simple answer is, this is not possible.