Cannabusiness Advisory

The CannaBusiness Advisory Spotlight Series features expert perspectives from Burns & Levinson clients and contacts who are blazing new trails in the cannabis market.

Today we spotlight Kyle Patrick Judge, Vice President, Management Liability, Cannabis & Transaction Risk at HUB International. HUB is a global insurance broker and financial services firm headquartered in Chicago with over 530 offices throughout North America. Their work focuses on risk management, insurance, employee benefits, retirement, and wealth management products and services. HUB’s dedicated cannabis practice assists cannabis-related businesses with securing business insurance, risk services, and claims management, and building employee benefits programs.

At Burns and Levinson’s Sixth Annual State of the Cannabis Industry Conference, Kyle will speak with nationwide industry experts on the panel “Weathering the Storm: Restructurings, Workouts, and Distressed M&A.” The panel will discuss best practices for navigating financial and operational distress from multiple perspectives – investors, secured debt holders, and companies during dropping stock prices and reduced multiples.

From your corner of the cannabis industry, what’s the single greatest challenge right now?

The biggest challenge in the management liability space is a lack of carriers playing in the cannabis space. This is the crux of a lot of the common challenges we face with clients. Pricing and retentions remain high and the lack of competition has slowed progress on expanding coverage/terms and conditions for our clients.

How does your business solve issues related to this challenge? 

HUB continues to push underwriters to step outside their comfort zones. As more and more carriers dip their toes in the cannabis space, we can slowly expand the coverage our clients are getting while using the added competition to level out rates & retentions.

If you could travel back in time by ten years, what would you tell your former self about the industry? 

I would take chances with “new” fields earlier. Cannabis had always interested me from an insurance standpoint, but ultimately it took me a few years to really jump in and focus on it. I think it is an incredible field with great clients. I would push myself to move quicker on carving out this niche.

Burns and Levinson’s Sixth Annual State of the Cannabis Industry Conference is on Monday, October 17th at the Westin Boston Waltham. Our nationally recognized conference convenes national experts and industry leaders to share unique strategic legal and financial perspectives on forecasted trends, regulations, M&A, investments, and more. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets. Use code SECRET25 for 25% off your tickets!