Insuring Cannabis Businesses – Issues and Problems

Illustrate a cannabis plant

Insuring cannabis businesses can be problematic. During the course of the past two years, I’ve written several new insurance continuing education (CE) online and webinar courses for my client, A.D. Banker & Company. One of the most recent webinars is Insuring Cannabis Risks.

The course is the brainchild of inquiries submitted by individuals who attended a free monthly webinar I co-host with A.D. Banker vice president, Pam Reihs. During each 1-hour Insurance Trends Webinar, Pam and I talk about insurance topics of current relevancy. How to insure cannabis businesses is always at the top of the list. Questions we often receive are:

  • Why isn’t cannabis/marijuana legal in all the states?
  • In what states IS marijuana legal?
  • What about hemp, that’s legal, isn’t it?
  • Why is it so hard for cannabis businesses to establish relationships with banks and credit card companies?
  • What insurance companies write insurance for cannabis businesses?

The insurance CE webinar answers these and other questions for licensed insurance professionals. I recently wrote two blog posts for A.D. Banker that summarizes the most important information contained in the course. So, for you insurance and non-insurance people alike, feel free to visit those blog posts:

Check back as I provide ongoing updates about this evolving insurance marketplace. To register for the insurance CE webinar, click here. You can find my insurance webinar schedule here.

Podcast Guest: Barb Gavitt Talks Insurance Licensing in a Pandemic

Barb Gavitt is Vice President of Product Development and Education at A.D. Banker & Company, one of the leading insurance pre-licensing and continuing education providers in the country. She is also the 2020 president of the Securities & Insurance Licensing Authority.

Barb sat down with me recently to discuss the challenges many have been facing, and continue to face, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. Although the insurance and financial services industries have been deemed “essential” during shelter-in-place orders, the licensing test centers were not.

This means that individuals who were already hired to work in the industry could not obtain their licenses, despite having paid significant fees and devoted tremendous amounts of time studying. Similarly, those wanting to be hired or wanting to obtain an additional license or line of authority on an existing license find themselves equally frustrated and stymied.

On Episode 6 of my podcast, Taking the Mystery out of Insurance, Barb explains what’s been happening to date, how the states are opening up now, and what she anticipates in the future.

A video of our chat will appear on the podcast’s YouTube Channel later in the week.

May Webinar Dates

My May schedule of webinars for A.D. Banker is now available:

  • May 05 | 11:30 a.m. | Driving into the Future: Uber, Drones, and Driverless Cars
  • May 11 | 11:30 a.m. | Emerging Technologies & Market
  • May 14 | 8:30 a.m. | Anti-Money Laundering 1-hour Refresher
  • May 19 | 11:30 a.m. | Ethics in Action
  • May 28 | 8:30 a.m. | Anti-Money Laundering

For more information, or to register, click here.

March CE Webinar Schedule

My insurance CE webinar schedule for March is now available.

In addition to the regular monthly webinars, I also teach the New York Regulation 187 webinar (scroll down the CE Webinar Schedule page to find those dates), and the FREE Lunch & Learn webinars along with Pam Reihs. The Lunch & Learn webinars are NOT for CE credit; however, those who attend the entire webinar can receive a Professional Development Certificate.