Cannabis Business Insurance:
The protection you need to grow amid continued risk
Despite record growth, the cannabis industry is still stuck in a web of state and federal laws governing the sale of cannabis and CBD products. This makes it difficult for industry businesses to obtain reliable insurance coverage. HUB’s specialized cannabis insurance experts and risk consultants help you manage the emerging risks that face your cannabis business with the right risk transfer and mitigation.
Our industry brokers and risk control specialists offer cannabis insurance and risk consulting services tailored to your needs. We make sure you’re covered, so you can focus on maximizing growth and profit.
With specialists in both the U.S. and Canada, HUB is ideally positioned to manage your cross-border cannabis risk. We can help secure a multi-policy coverage that protects your retail, warehouse and extraction outlets both north and south of the border, where cannabis is legal (Canada) and federally illegal (U.S.). This requires a deep understanding of coverage nuances and interdependencies.
HUB’s industry experts can help you manage domestic cross-border challenges as well. This includes obtaining the right insurance policies and instituting the best risk management practices for cannabis sales and transportation across state lines.
What types of Cannabis Insurance coverage does HUB Offer?
Our relationships with leading insurance carriers and wholesalers that specialize in cannabis insurance enable us to recommend optimal coverage across sectors. Our deep knowledge of cannabis risk allows us to help you manage exposures and anticipate trends.
Cultivation and harvesting: Severe weather across North America can threaten and reduce ROI for cannabis field owners and operators. Parametric coverage and other unique policy alternatives may be an option for your business.
More farmers are setting aside land to grow cannabis, as traditional fruits and vegetables earn less than fair market price. Unlike these traditional crops, cannabis plant growth is not covered by the Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) and will need to be privately insured, which can be costly and is harder to come by, especially with the necessary limits and premiums. Make sure you have the right coverage to transport the cannabis from your grow facility to an extraction or retail dispensary.
HUB’s dedicated Cannabis team can help you secure the following policies for your cannabis cultivation and harvesting program:
Crop insurance
Parametric insurance
Product recall insurance
General Liability insurance
Policy for transportation/distribution of cannabis?
Extraction: Use of hazardous chemicals in cannabis extraction is replete with risk. For business owners, this makes insurance both harder to come by and critical to maintaining safe operations.
HUB’s dedicated Cannabis team can help you secure the following policies for your cannabis extraction operation:
Property insurance
General Liability insurance
Product recall insurance
Policy for regulatory fines/actions
Retail and wholesale dispensary: As legalization continues to expand, cannabis retail outlets are moving into neighborhood strip malls and high-traffic retail centers.
Due to the influx of cash into stores and pressures from the underground black market, cannabis retailers face theft and cyber breaches at greater proportions. At the same time, real estate developers and property owners face liability and push back from other tenants due to cannabis renters.
HUB’s dedicated cannabis team can help you secure the following policies for your retail dispensary, or for your facility that houses cannabis tenants:
Property insurance
General Liability insurance
Crime insurance
Cyber insurance
Ancillary cannabis businesses: Ancillary support businesses providing IT, equipment, transportation and delivery, and consulting services to cannabis businesses will face some of the same risks cannabis businesses do. Because cannabis isn’t federally legal, your existing policies may not cover the products or services you provide.
HUB’s dedicated cannabis team can help you secure the following policies for your ancillary cannabis business:
Errors and Emissions (E&O) insurance
General Liability insurance
Umbrella insurance
Cyber insurance
Distribution: Interstate transportation can open cannabis organizations up to federal fines and product confiscation. Understanding state and federal interconnectivity can help inform your risk management for distribution.
Manufacturing: Rising product recall claims threaten to derail a grower’s mission of delivering quality products. Instituting top risk management practices will be key to safeguarding your products and manufacturing facilities.
Wholesale: Distribution outlets face security, theft and inventory challenges. Offloading risk to contracts and insurance can reduce exposure.
Retail outlets and dispensaries: Cyber breaches and theft are rampant at cannabis retail outlets and dispensaries. Securing the right cyber and crime coverage are key to fortifying your business assets.
Support for Your Current and Emerging Risks
Cannabis insurance is available in Canada and all US states where medical and recreational cannabis is legal. Our dedicated brokers, claims advisors, risk services consultants and employee benefits specialists can advise you on a wide range of insurance and risk management issues.
Let’s work together to develop a tailored cannabis insurance and risk consulting solution to meet your needs.
Cannabis businesses face significant risk regardless of their purpose – plant growth, extraction, retail sales or distribution. Crime, employee theft, product contamination and cyber breaches are common in each discipline and must be accounted for when purchasing business insurance. A broker with industry-specific knowledgeable is a must to securing the right coverage with the right limits.
All cannabis operations will want to consider offloading risk to coverage with the following policies:
Commercial general liability
Management liability including D&O, crime and employment practices liability
Product liability and product recall
Property and crop insurance
Equipment breakdown
Business auto including hired and non-owned
Care, custody and control coverage for distributors transporting third party goods
Surety bonds
Workers’ compensation
Crime
Cyber
Safe R&D extraction, employee theft and incorrect product labeling are a few of the risks cannabis businesses face daily. And without adequate organizational development, even explosive growth is a liability. Proper risk management is key to keeping insurance costs low, complying with state laws and reducing the risk of future claims.
HUB Cannabis Risk Services and Claims Management can help your business with:
Regulatory compliance assistance
Worker safety and security
Operational hazard and site security assessments
Business continuity and emergency response planning
Transportation and fleet safety management
US/Canada cross-border business challenges
Claims management and advocacy services
When configured correctly, employee benefit packages in the cannabis industry can help reduce high turnover and employee theft. The first step? Examine the needs of your team. Let HUB’s experienced employee benefits team help you build the right EB program for your cannabis business.
Reduce your contractual risk with HUB Contract Review
HUB Contract Review, an artificial intelligence technology and service solution, helps make any contract review with insurance or indemnification faster and easier.
Conflict Prevention & De-Escalation in the Cannabis Workplace
Enact proper protocols and training in your cannabis operation to help prepare staff to de-escalate any potential incidents—before they become conflicts.
How to reduce risk while growing your cannabis business
Don’t let common cannabis business risks catch you off guard. Learn which exposures affect you most — and learn how to reduce those risks before they happen. Find out when to transfer your business risk to insurance, and which policies are key to doing so. It’s all in this free, downloadable guide.
“When we’re looking to deploy capital, we want to make sure our clients are properly covered. Working with HUB helps us provide effective insurance coverage for the companies we put money behind.“
