Choose the Right Broker

Video Transcript

Larry Harb: 

Today, there’s choices out there. I like to think we’re the best at 420 Friendly Insurance. I like our name, anyways. But, at the end of the day, we’re not the only ones out there doing this. If you’re gonna buy insurance and you don’t buy it from me, buy it from somebody who at least understands the industry. That becomes very, very important. Okay? ‘Cause then they’ll help you get properly insured. Independent agents, yes. Captive agents aren’t selling this. The State Farms, the All States of the world, they’re not touching this today. So, they’re basically out. Independent agents, there’s a lot of independent agents out there. And what do they do? An independent agent will say, yeah, I can do this. And they pick up the phone and call a broker like me, because they don’t have access to the markets.

So, it’s really people like us that are the brokers that have access to the policies. Okay? And we service independent agents. But, in your case, if you could get to the broker, I would do that ‘cause now you’re dealing closer to the source. Okay? And, again, deal with somebody that understands and gets your industry, which is the most important thing. Market access, okay? As I said earlier, there are really about a dozen companies today that are doing this from a carrier’s perspective. Okay? So, if you go to two brokers, we’re all going to the same carriers. So, we’re stepping on each other. So, there’s no advantage to that for you, okay? In fact, there’s a disadvantage because what happens when you go to me another broker, we start stepping on each other—I’m saying, wait a minute, pick one of us. Let one of us represent you, let one of us do it. It’s just easier and simpler for everybody.

Now, this is captive. Captives is a big word that’s come up in the cannabis industry today and you’re gonna see captives versus insurance carriers. And we’re seeing this. Out at MJBizCon, I think there were three captives. When I was at Cannacon Detroit, I think I found two more captives that’d just started out. And what is a captive? A captive is a  group of homogeneous individuals or companies that get together and say, we’re gonna form our own insurance company. And you’re paying your premiums to yourself—to the captive. And if one of you has a claim, the captive pays out. The problem with captives is, you gotta make sure they’re financially stable because you wanna make sure they have enough money to pay claims if and when you have them.