Jeff Green, CEO & Founder, Winstone Wealth Partners

In an interview with Invest:, Jeff Green, CEO and founder of Winstone Wealth Partners, discussed the firm’s rebrand, Houston’s growth, the evolving role of financial advisors, and Winstone’s approach to long-term growth. “People don’t necessarily need more information. They need someone who cares about them enough to help them make good decisions about that information,” Green said.

What drove the rebrand to Winstone Wealth Partners, and what does it represent for the firm’s next chapter?

We started out as Green Financial Group back in 2008, which really just meant that my last name was on the door. At the time, it was a small firm. It was me and one assistant. We’ve grown so much over the years that it is now much more than just about me. I have a whole team here that really gets the job done. So our brand should reflect our collective future as a team, not just me.

As we’ve continued to grow, we’ve also become clearer about the firm we want to build. We want a practice that feels collaborative, innovative, and enduring. We felt that changing our name from Green Financial Group to Winstone Wealth Partners would helps us accomplish that and position us more strongly for the next several decades in business.

How is Houston’s growth creating new opportunities for Winstone and its clients?

We’re bullish on Houston long term. This has always been a city with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and deep roots in energy, but today we’re seeing meaningful growth across healthcare, technology, and other industries as well. That diversification is creating new businesses, new executives, and new sources of wealth.

For us, that creates an opportunity to serve a broader range of successful families while still leaning into what we know well. We understand Houston, and we understand the energy industry and the unique financial situations that often come with it. At the same time, we’re building a firm that can grow alongside this city and serve the next generation of Houston’s business leaders and families.

What trends are shaping wealth management as technology and AI become more prevalent?

Technology and AI are dramatically changing our industry, but I don’t believe they are going to eliminate the need for great financial advisors and good financial advice. I think they are going to expose the difference between an advisor who simply provides information and an advisor who provides judgment about that information and ways to implement it.

Clients have access to more information, more investment choices, and more technology than ever before, but I actually think that makes trusted advice even more valuable, not less.

Technology can analyze a portfolio, produce a financial plan, and summarize thousands of pages of information almost instantaneously. But when the market is down 20%, and a client is scared, technology doesn’t have a 20-year relationship with that family.

When someone sells a business, loses a spouse, retires, has to make a major decision involving their children, or an elderly person loses some cognitive function, technology isn’t going to help you with that. Those situations still warrant someone sitting across the table from you to help you navigate life’s challenges.

Because at the end of the day, people don’t necessarily need more information. They need someone who can help them make good decisions about that information.

What differentiates Winstone in an increasingly competitive wealth management landscape?

As wealth management firms grow, they tend to become more institutional. Processes improve and capabilities expand, which is good, but sometimes the relationships become less personal. We want the best of both worlds. We invest a great deal in technology and processes, but we never want to lose the human touch.

We’ve asked our clients why they have stayed with us for decades, why they continue doing business with us, and why they chose us in the first place. The answers came back to something simple: They felt we heard them. We listened.

We know about our clients’ families, their kids, their struggles, and their successes. We share in that with them. We also support causes that are personal to us and, more importantly, causes that are personal to our clients.

So I’d say what really differentiates Winstone is having scale alongside that intimacy. We want to remain more approachable and boutique for our clients, even as our firm grows and becomes more efficient.

What are some of the biggest financial planning questions clients are bringing to you?

Many of our clients have been very successful in their careers or businesses and have spent decades building significant wealth. At this stage, the questions become: How do I continue to grow and protect what I’ve built? How do I create a plan that takes care of my family? And how do I make sure that wealth is stewarded thoughtfully to my children and grandchildren?

That brings in everything from estate and succession planning to tax strategy, retirement income and investment decisions. Our job is to help clients understand how all of those pieces work together, not just today, but across generations.

Some of our clients just want to know when and how they can afford to retire. They also want to know what their lifestyle will look like when they do. We help answer that question around affordability during retirement. Sometimes we have to have difficult conversations with clients and tell them we don’t think they can retire yet and get the job done effectively or safely.

And even with significant wealth, some of the decisions can be surprisingly personal. A good example is whether to pay off a mortgage in retirement. I can give our clients a mathematical reason why they should or should not pay off their house. But then there is an emotional factor that I cannot put down on a piece of paper. That is where a good relationship with a financial advisor comes in because you can talk it through.

How do you help clients navigate the constant flow of market information and investment trends?

One of the biggest challenges for investors is the amount of noise they hear. Every day, there is a new prediction about interest rates, stock markets, Washington, artificial intelligence, geopolitics, or the next great investment. Investors try to react to this instantaneously, and that is difficult to do.

Our job is to slow that decision-making process down and ask a much more important question: Does this actually change your long-term financial plan? We bring it back around to their personal situation and try to help them make sense of what they really want to know.

Markets can reward risk over long periods of time. This can make diversification and risk management look unnecessary right up until the moment they are needed. Our responsibility isn’t to chase whatever worked best over the last six months. Our responsibility is to help clients compound wealth over decades while managing the risks that could permanently disrupt their plan.

How are you developing the next generation of advisors within Winstone?

We have intentionally created a multigenerational firm. I’m the oldest one here, and there are two, maybe three, generations of talent below me that we are developing. That’s important because we want Winstone to be a firm that is built to last well beyond any one person.

We develop our younger team members by giving them real exposure and responsibility. They’re learning directly from senior advisors, participating in client meetings, and becoming deeply familiar with our clients and their financial lives. That benefits our clients, too. Rather than relying on one advisor, they have an entire team that understands their accounts and goals, with different generations and perspectives at their disposal.

Just as important is teaching them how we manage the business. Our leadership team spent a lot of time defining our core values because they genuinely reflect the kind of firm we want to be. I tell every potential hire that they don’t have to share those values, but if they want to work here, they must. Otherwise, it simply won’t be a fit.

We’re very intentional about creating a culture where people work hard, pitch in for one another, and understand that taking care of the client comes first. Ultimately, developing the next generation isn’t just about creating capable financial advisors. It’s about developing people who can eventually lead this firm, carry those relationships forward and preserve the culture that made Winstone successful in the first place.

What are your priorities for Winstone over the next two to three years?

Winstone Wealth Partners recently began operating under an independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), a move we spent several years thoughtfully evaluating. Now, a big priority is taking advantage of what that new structure gives us: new technology, expanded planning resources, broader investment capabilities and greater flexibility in how we serve our clients.

We’re also focused on investing in our people, recruiting great advisors and professionals who fit our culture, and continuing to grow thoughtfully. I also believe there will be significant consolidation and succession opportunities in the wealth management industry over the next several years. There are a lot of talented advisors who have built great practices but eventually have to answer the question of what happens to their clients and employees when they decide to retire. We believe Winstone can provide that answer.

Whether growth comes organically, through recruiting, or through other strategic opportunities, we’re going to remain disciplined about our culture. We’re not interested in growth simply for the sake of getting bigger. We want to grow with the right people, at the right pace, and in ways that ultimately make us a better firm for our clients.