AAIS recently attended the IRMI Agribusiness Conference (AgriCon), the premier event for insurance and risk management professionals specializing in the exposures and coverage needs of farms and agribusinesses. Among the many interesting and informative sessions, AAIS Product Development Specialist Hope King highlighted two topics particularly near and dear to AAIS and our Members.

Recently, AAIS Assistant Counsel Phil Skaggs participated in a webinar hosted by LexisNexis as part of their Emerging Issues series entitled “What Cannabis Lawyers Should Know to Prepare for 2022.” To watch a recap of the webinar, click here.

The burgeoning cannabis market is creating pressure on the insurance industry to develop products that address risks emerging from increased legalization. AAIS Commercial Lines Product Manager Joe Jonas shared his insights on the market during the 2021 Business Insurance Cannabis Update. Mr. Jonas was joined by Charles Pyfrom, CMO at CannGen Insurance, and host Gerrit Nagarwalla, CPCU from Canopius, for a discussion on ‘Claims, Policy & Underwriting.’

The COVID-19 pandemic has had lasting impacts on industries far and wide…including the growing cannabis industry. In the inaugural edition of the AAIS Pulse, AAIS’s Joe Jonas and Phil Skaggs were joined by Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP’s Randi Ellias and Aon’s Richard Golz to discuss cannabis insurance trends, including the impact the pandemic has had on its expansion.

If you ask anyone working in insurance how they got into the field, they'll tell you two things: that they didn't grow up wanting to be in insurance and that they "fell into it."          

Cannabis insurance is a budding topic, growing alongside the expanding cannabis industry. Five states have approved recreational cannabis during the 2020 elections, bringing the total states where cannabis is fully legal to 15. What does this mean for the cannabis market, particularly for insurers involved with this growing industry?

An increasing number of states are legalizing the use of medicinal and recreational cannabis, creating the opportunity for new business ventures and the need for reliable insurance coverage as the industry expands and matures.