Influential Woman · Wealth Management

Zeynep Kaya

Digital Marketing Intern, Sunpointe Investments

St. Louis, MO

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Senior Business Student at UMSL with emphasis in Finance Member Vice President of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club at UMSL

Her Story

About Zeynep

I've always wanted to be in finance, though I didn't initially know what type of role I would have. I was first interested in investment banking because of the ambitious nature and compensation, and it felt right up my alley. However, after considering what I want from life - having a family and children one day - I realized I couldn't do that while working 80-plus hours a week. That's when I found wealth management, which became the perfect happy medium for me based on what I was looking for and my skill sets. I love the more holistic approach to financial management that wealth management offers. While a financial advisor focuses mainly on a portfolio, a wealth manager looks at the bigger picture - doing estate planning, taxes, setting up trusts. I really appreciate the comprehensive, holistic way that wealth management operates versus investment banking or any other field. Currently, I'm an intern who started in October 2025, so I've been in the field for about six or seven months. I'm still figuring out where I fit best within the company, but right now my main area of expertise is data analysis. I've been very good at breaking down large pieces of data, reading it, and turning that into reports. My day-to-day changes constantly as they're putting me in every single meeting and position just so I can get a better idea of what they're doing. I work primarily in Wealthbox, our customer CRM, which communicates with Addepar, a more advanced portfolio management system. Wealthbox is where I live on a day-to-day basis - I extract data from there, pull reports, and clean up data, along with attending lots and lots of meetings.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Zeynep

01What do you attribute your success to?

Honestly, my parents, I would say. My parents are some of the hardest workers that I've ever seen, and I just get up every day and I try to make them happy. I know they're so proud, but it just never feels like it's enough. Just seeing them makes me think, oh my gosh, I need to get up, I need to start working right now. They really drive me to keep pushing forward.

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I've received is 'let them tell you no.' I was being too much in my head and coming up with ways why an interview or internship wouldn't work, and someone told me, let them tell you no - don't tell yourself no. Go out there, do what you want to do, and then let them tell you no if it's a no, because a lot of the times, it's not going to be a no. It's in your head, you're telling yourself no. That advice really changed my life. I think I've put myself a lot more out there after having heard that.

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