More brokers and advisors will discover the cannabis industry in 2019 and begin to offer a range of products designed to meet their needs. (Photo: Bloomberg)
For brokers looking for a new niche to explore in 2019, Spencer Mahoney of CCIG points to the burgeoning legal cannabis market. Mahoney, an advisor with the Colorado-based insurer, says he began exploring the market soon after states began to legalize cannabis production and sales. He found that most companies in the new space had major gaps in their coverage, and that few insurance firms had customized insurance products for the unique business challenges faced by the fast-expanding sector.
“There was a need and no one was making themselves an expert,” he said. He decided to fill that role himself, contacting cannabis companies and attending cannabis conferences around the U.S.
“I found a lot of people operating without insurance because they simply couldn't find it,” he says. “Or, if they had insurance, the policy had exclusions that made it not a very good product.” Often, coverage did not include product liability, he says, which proved to be a gaping hole in a policy.
Once he made himself a presence in the industry, and was able to demonstrate his expertise through insurance packages that met the cannabis industry's needs, the business poured in. “Our clients who want to be represented by someone who knows the space. We bring that professionalism to them,” he says.
Mahoney believes more brokers and advisors like himself will discover the industry in 2019 and begin to offer a range of products designed to meet their needs, rather than offering an existing product bent and twisted to look like coverage.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
