In this episode of Family Office Investing Podcast & Investor Insights | Arthur's Round Table, Arthur Bavelas is joined by Rodrigo Vicuna, founder of Wealthie, and Pamela Cytrom, founder and CEO of The Founders Arena, for a fascinating discussion about an enormous asset hiding on American household balance sheets: home equity. Rodrigo argues that approximately $15–$17 trillion of home equity sits largely outside modern wealth management. Wealthie was created around a deceptively simple question: What if homeowners could put a portion of that equity to work without taking out a traditional loan, making monthly payments, or paying interest charges? Rodrigo's background spans fintech, lending, crypto, and venture-backed companies. After Wharton, he worked at BCG, where he helped develop early perspectives on fintech, crypto, algorithmic underwriting, and machine learning. He later worked on Wells Fargo's home-mortgage origination platform, built a multibillion-dollar consumer lending book, and served as CFO of BitGo, where he was part of the founding custodian team. Today, he's applying that experience to a very different financial problem. Wealthie has created what Rodrigo calls a WISE agreement — Wealth Investment Shared Equity agreement. Rather than borrowing against home equity, a homeowner trades a portion of current equity in exchange for capital placed into a managed investment account. The homeowner retains responsibility for the home and doesn't make monthly payments to Wealthie. Settlement occurs when the home is sold, refinanced, the equity is bought back, or otherwise according to the agreement. One particularly important part of the conversation concerns downside risk. Rodrigo says that if a home's value falls, the homeowner doesn't face a conventional margin call requiring the home to be sold. Likewise, a decline in the associated investment account doesn't automatically trigger liquidation and settlement. Wealthie designed the structure around the idea that a home is both a place to live and an asset that often needs patient capital. The underwriting discussion is equally interesting. Rodrigo explains that Wealthie evaluates the property, existing debt, insurance, taxes, liens and other factors and uses automated valuation models to establish a property value. Wealthie currently allows a homeowner to invest up to 25% of existing home equity through the structure. But the story behind the company may be even more important than the financial engineering. Rodrigo describes how his parents lost their home following the 2008 financial crisis. Years later, after his father died, his mother faced financial hardship despite having substantial equity in her home. That experience shaped Rodrigo's belief that tying so much of a family's financial security to a single illiquid asset can create serious vulnerabilities. The result is a much larger question: Should Americans continue thinking about home equity primarily as something they access by selling or borrowing—or should the home become part of modern portfolio management? That question has implications not only for homeowners, but for financial advisors, RIAs, banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, institutional investors, and family offices. About Rodrigo Vicuna Rodrigo Vicuna is the founder of Wealthie. His career has included BCG, consumer lending, fintech, crypto, and multiple venture-backed businesses. He served as CFO of BitGo and was part of its founding custodian team before building Wealthie. Wealthie is an SEC-registered investment advisor that Rodrigo describes as enabling homeowners to invest a portion of their home equity into other assets without conventional debt, monthly payments, or interest charges. Educational discussion only. Nothing in this episode constitutes investment, tax, legal, credit, or financial advice. Product terms, eligibility, investment results, tax consequences, and risks depend on individual circumstances.
