Meet Winnie
Entrepreneurship started early in Winnie’s life. At age 7, she was selling avocados out of her friend’s yard all around their neighborhood. When she was 9, she was working at her father’s pizza restaurant, where she memorized the tax calculations for every pizza, cup of soda and menu item that could be ordered.
Winnie is the child of immigrant parents who struggled with a new language and a new culture, but they showed her how hard work could lead to success. Her family wasn’t rich, but she always felt extremely fulfilled and happy. Winnie’s parents were incredible savers and she remembers being taken to the bank to roll pennies and nickels to be deposited into her first savings account. Winnie accredits her first savings account booklet to be like a gift from heaven.
Education was a top priority in the Sun household. As with many Asian parents, hitting the books came before anything else. Winnie excelled in high school and got
accepted into all of her top choices for college — only to learn her first lesson about bad investing. Winnie’s parents put money into a townhouse project that was supposed to pay for college. It went belly up. She didn’t know it at the time, but her parents’ financial hardship and struggles served as the best personal finance education she could have received. Winnie also knew she never wanted to ever be in their situation. Winnie ended up in state at UCLA, working constantly to help her family financially. When most kids were partying, she was searching for side jobs.
During college, Winnie started a television audience consulting company, signing the hit shows and big networks — America’s Funniest Home Videos, Judge Judy, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, MTV pilots and others as clients. She even became a voting member for the Emmy’s.
During the television downtime, Winnie studied Personal Financial Planning at UCLA. Right before completion of the program, Winnie was hired as a financial advisor at Smith Barney. She sold her television audience production business, and put on her first suit.
An entrepreneur, speaker and media personality, Winnie has been featured on CNBC, Fox Business, Cheddar and appeared in 100 other interviews for various outlets.
After more than a decade at Smith Barney, Winnie left to form Sun Group Wealth Partners with her partner Brandon Chang. In 2011, they left the big firm and started their own boutique practice. As the Managing Director and Founding Partner of Sun Group Wealth Partners, valued qualified professional collaborative, Winnie has gained more than two decades of experience. Winnie’s experience includes managing money for high net worth individuals, advising companies and small businesses on growth and pursuing long-term financial success for her clients.
As a widely followed financial advisors on social media, Winnie Sun has gained widespread recognition for her expertise and insights. With over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Winnie has been ranked by Forbes as one of the top Women Wealth Advisors in the country (from 2019 to 2021), is a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council, and has been named one of Investment News' Twenty Women to Watch (2015). She is a frequent speaker at national events, including CNBC and Forbes, and appears regularly as a market commentator on CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Good Day LA, Fox Business News, and Cheddar TV. In 2024, Winnie is listed as Forbes Top Women Wealth Advisors, Best-In-State.
Winnie is also a regular contributor to major media outlets, including Good Day LA, the Today Show, Fox Business, CNBC, NerdWallet, Influencive, MoneyTips, ModernMom, Galtime, Bloomberg’s AssetTV, and many others. Her insights and commentary have been featured in top-tier publications such as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, ABC, The New York Times, Yahoo! Finance, AOL Finance, HuffPost LIVE, theStreet TV, USA Today, TheStreet show, Rep Magazine, OnWallstreet Magazine, Financial Planning Magazine, FA Magazine, AdvisorOne Magazine, GreersOC, Orange County Business Journal, Orange County Register, OC Metro, OC Family, and more.
Winnie lives in Southern California with her husband and three sons - who keep them very busy.
Winnie Sun 2015:
InvestmentNews will review nominees’ eligibility for the list based on the following criteria: demonstrated success and leadership in the financial advisory industry; the ability or power to effect change in the industry; exhibited a willingness to share her expertise with others in the field, including serving as a mentor or role model to other female professionals in the industry and speaking at industry events; and giving back to her community through such activities as sitting on boards, volunteering and donating time to help investors
Winnie Sun America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors 2019-2021
** The Forbes ranking of America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on an algorithm of qualitative and quantitative data, rating thousands of wealth advisors with a minimum of seven years of experience and weighing factors like revenue trends, assets under management, compliance records, industry experience and best practices learned through telephone and in-person interviews. Portfolio performance is not a criterion due to varying client objectives and lack of audited data. Neither Forbes nor SHOOK receives a fee in exchange for rankings.
Winnie Sun Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisors 2018-2020. 2024
* The Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisor ranking, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on in-person and telephone due diligence meetings and a ranking algorithm that includes: client retention, industry experience, review of compliance records, firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, including: assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Portfolio performance is not a criterion due to varying client objectives and lack of audited data. Neither Forbes nor SHOOK Research receives a fee in exchange for rankings.
“Right here, right now is exactly where you should be. We don’t choose our way, but we always get to decide how we act on opportunities.”
— Winnie Sun