The path for building wealth used to be much more clear:

1. Get a free university education
2. Secure a ‘job for life’
3. Buy a house with an affordable mortgage
4. Retire with a comfortable employer-funded pension

But this is no longer the case.

Today, a university education saddles the average graduate with £45,800 of debt (Student Loan Statistics, 2022). A third of adults are looking to change jobs in the next two years (L&W, 2022). The typical UK home costs seven times the average person’s earnings — the highest it’s ever been (Halifax, 2022). And final salary company pensions have become a rarity outside of the public sector.

Added to this, rising inflation and the cost of living crisis has been yet another setback for those wanting to build wealth.

A society of (unequal) investors

Financially, we’re increasingly on our own. And we’re having to take much more direct control of our own wealth creation.

Some of us choose to work for ourselves to take more control of our income and pension arrangements. Some of us invest in new enterprises by starting a company. And millions of us invest in the financial markets through stock trading apps.

We’re becoming a society of investors.

But the playing field isn’t level. How we invest creates enormous wealth disparity over the long term.

People classified as ‘high-net-worth investors’ (for instance, those with net assets of more than £250k) can access all sorts of alternative investments that can help deliver higher returns: from hedge funds, to private equity and venture capital.

They can access expertise and knowledge that isn’t available to most people. And they can afford to use professionals to manage their money on their behalf.

Wealthier investors can afford to put more of their wealth to work, too. And they can do it for longer (holding assets over a long period of time is a key component of building wealth) — if they need cash, they don’t need to sell their assets, they can just borrow against them.

Everyone else is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Most people are limited to either investing in low-cost passive products that offer little opportunity to beat the market (such as most ETFs), or they can try to time the market and pick stocks and crypto themselves without access to the training, tools and information needed to do this effectively.

The first wave of wealthtech challengers may have helped introduce investing to more people. But the products, strategies and opportunities utilised by high-net-worth investors to really grow their wealth are still locked away from most retail investors.

Levelling the playing field

The wealthiest investors are able to generate up to 3–4 times the returns of the average investor (KKR, 2017). But it’s not because they’re smarter.

The system is set up to help them win.

At Sidekick, we believe that everyone deserves access to the same wealth-building opportunities.

So we’re building a modern investment manager to help today’s generation navigate a rapidly changing world.

Sidekick will offer many of the same features and benefits currently enjoyed exclusively by private banking customers.

Our expert investment team will share regular investment updates and high quality editorial content to help you become a more knowledgeable investor along the way.

We’ll offer a choice of risk-managed active investment portfolios, each aiming to deliver above market returns.

We’ll design portfolios that incorporate alternative investments such as crypto, to help customers diversify beyond just equities and bonds, when suitable.

We’ll provide a portfolio line of credit for qualifying customers to borrow against their assets, and help leave their investments to grow.

And we’ll offer all of this via a new, mobile-first investment experience.

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Please remember, investing should be viewed as longer term. Your capital is at risk — the value of investments can go up and down, and you may get back less than you put in. Cryptoassets are only regulated in the UK for money laundering purposes. If you invest in these types of assets, you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.

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