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.

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“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.

Read more: 

• The impact of medical marijuana on the workplace
• Legalization leads to more conversations, data on marijuana use
• Study finds support for marijuana legalization, but its future is still cloudy