CLI DOC Roland DeWinne interview 1-9-2026.prproj.txt
English (US)

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It's Roland Camille de Winnie Junior, and I am the chair of the board at this moment. You're board chair? Yes, sir. Can you spell your last name? Oh, yes, d e excuse me. Capital d e capital w I n n e all. One word.


00:00:24.000 — 00:00:52.200
Well, Mr. Board Chair, how would you describe current time? I think current times are confusing to a lot of people. And that's where organizations such as Catholic Life come in, because it gives you some thing to hold on to. That hasn't changed. And we need that now more than what most people think. You don't want to be scared about the things that are outside.

You want to take care of the things that are inside with you.


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Does Catholic life itself face changes? Catholic Life Insurance Company itself has to change because there is a lot of things happening in the industry where the fraternal account of insurance companies is moving downward, either by consolidation or them disclosing. Catholic life is not going to go down, and Catholic life is not going to close.

Catholic life is going to be here for the next 125 years, and it's also going to be bigger, because we're going to be the people who grow, continue to grow. Yeah. I'm I'm curious for you to to say we're going to be here for another 125 years. What are some steps that you know right now that you're going to take to insure?

Well, we're actively are paying attention to what's happening with the other fraternities and our CEO, Chris. He talks closely to the ones that he he is real involved with communicating with them. So we can be tuned in to where opportunities may come, or we may be able to become bigger by any type of an acquisition or some type of consolidation of insurance companies.

That's been done in the Midwest, up in the Ohio and Michigan area, and it's going to be a trend and it's going to happen. It's no different than one airline buying another airline. It's no different than Coca-Cola buying Pepsi, because that will probably happen one day, too. And you're going to have Coke by Pepsi.

That's just no different than cable companies. I mean, think of all the cable companies that have conglomerates over the years. What, uh,


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what benefits does being a fraternal organization bring a life insurance company that that being a prudential doesn't mean what what competitive advantage is being a fraternal? The thing about being a fraternal is that the people that you're around, you know, have the insurance that you have, so you feel confident with it when you're talking about it.

Prudential, you might have a guy driving next door to you or living next door to you, and he may have a Prudential Insurance and you never know it because he's a big corporate moneymaking type of insurance company. And here you're going to know who your members are within your area, and you're going to know that they are Catholic.

I remember.


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When did you first get started with Catholic Life Insurance? Oh, God.


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I bought my first policy when I was right at 18, 19 years old. So that's every bit of 40 plus years ago. And this is the way. Like like I was describing just a moment ago, I bought that from my great uncle because he was involved in it. So but then that evolved into my dad becoming a board member and being elected as chairman of the board also.

So it's been a part of my life. It's been a part of my family's life. My two girls in my entire all my siblings, it's just it's part of what is part of us. That's great. Um,


00:04:06.800 — 00:04:52.880
why do you. Um, in your branch that you. I'm sure you've been. Probably involved in different leadership roles or anything. What's one thing that your branch has done that you feel really proud of, or that you feel passionate about for your community? You know, one thing that we've done that was was interesting to me, and we do it yearly, is we go to the area that's called Under the Bridge.

And, uh, those poor folks, lots of times they get a bunch of hand-me-downs. But what we do for them is we buy them new jeans and they get to wear brand new jeans, and that's something that they don't get to do very often because they're wearing something. They get out and got out of a goodwill store or whatever.

So it gives them a sense of pride for a period of time.


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That's really neat. I really like that. Um.


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Can you read my own handwriting? Um,


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is there somebody. Is there. Is there a phrase or something, a mantra or a quote or something that you kind of lived by in your life that kind of helped form you to be the man you are today? That you can live by. And if not, well, what I what I always tell people is I always tell the truth simply because I probably wouldn't remember the lie I told you.

And that's the way I've always felt about everything.


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You you, uh, got me. Good. But this video is going to be shown in the convention. You got any good convention stories? Well, you know,


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I really haven't been to as many conventions as some others have. But I know that every convention I've ever been to has been very, very much fun. And we learned a lot at the convention. And we also had a good time. And that's what it's all about. It's not all just about the learning. It's not all about just a good time.

It's a combination of both.


00:06:00.510 — 00:06:04.180
It's good. It's got to be good. Brisket Number one.


00:06:05.580 — 00:06:40.980
Um, one thing about tell me a little bit about, um, how people are selected to go to the convention. Are you familiar with the exact. I'm sure you are. Sure. Every branch is allowed to delegates, and then the additional branches who have a larger membership can also have additional delegates from 2 to 3.

No more than four. But it does have a limit on the number of delegates that can be there currently at 240. So that might be 250 if you want to correct that. We just had that meeting. I should remember that.


00:06:42.180 — 00:06:55.500
But uh, there's also, uh, your, uh, farmer directors and other folks get to go up to the number of 25. So we have a representative of everybody in the company and not just the delegates that also have the voting power.


00:06:57.780 — 00:07:30.970
Do you have to be Catholic to work at Catholic Life Insurance or be an agent? You don't have to be Catholic to work. You don't have to be Catholic. To be an agent, you don't have to be a Catholic to own a policy. Because we want everybody to enjoy the things that we enjoy as an insurance company. In fact, the one about the employees, I was surprised to find out that the number of employees that are actually here that aren't Catholic, because I just would have thought that they would be hesitant to go work for a company called Catholic Life Insurance and what they from another religion, but that should never scare anybody.


00:07:32.970 — 00:08:43.320
One thing that because I was I'm new to the to the business so called it seems like it's quite rural based. That's where it came from. Was, you know, a small town in Texas today. Is that still the case that it's it's largely a rural client base or describe describe the rural versus urban landscape right now.

Well, there's a large rural area. I picked up three additional branches Fredericksburg, Stonewall, and Harper here just recently. Those are all three towns that are very close to each other, and they all have their own branches. But then here in San Antonio, we have a multitude of branches also within our own geographic area.

And so it all depends really, who the most active was in their community and also in their church, because I find that the branches that are affiliated with the church is are a lot more active in their community than the ones who aren't, because it just gives them an avenue to discover and do the things that they want to do to help others.


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I have one last question. What do you think our members cherish or value most about Catholic life insurance? The one thing I believe that our members cherish the most and


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simply this is trust. They understand that they can trust what's happening and the decisions we make are our very sound and thought out and for the best of our company. And that's the main thing that I feel is the most important thing is trusting in anything that you do.


00:09:16.230 — 00:09:57.030
You're at a point right there where you really need to. You really need for your client to have trust in you. They're coming off in most cases at death. And it's it's a very difficult time. Can you speak to that a little bit about how important trust is at that particular time? Certainly at that particular time when a spouse or a friend or a family member dies, they don't want to be concerned about, well, I'm a guy.

Am I going to receive what I'm supposed to receive from Catholic life? Because Catholic life is going to make sure, do their agent and reach out to them and make sure that they receive everything, and it's all documented in the quickest manner that they can have it happen to them to help them with that time of special needs.


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Okay. I think we're good. I think I pass when


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you are in the accelerated.