California Put Commercial Cannabis on the Surplus Lines Export List. Here Is What That Means for Operators

In late 2025 the California Department of Insurance updated the state’s surplus lines Export List. After a June 17, 2025 public hearing, CDI Bulletin 2025-16 added commercial cannabis-related operations to that list, with the change taking effect November 24, 2025. For a licensed cultivator or dispensary, the practical translation is this: a surplus lines broker can place nonadmitted cannabis coverage without first documenting a diligent search of admitted carriers. That is a formal acknowledgment that the admitted market is not an adequate home for this class — not a promise that insurance got cheaper or easier.

Lions & Coventry Insurance Services is an independent brokerage at 7816 Uplands Way, Ste C in Citrus Heights. We place cannabis business insurance for licensed operators, not a one-size “marijuana policy.” This post is brokerage guidance, not legal advice. Read it next to our cannabis insurance in California overview and the standing cannabis business insurance page.

What “export list” means in plain English

California generally wants surplus lines — coverage written by nonadmitted insurers — used only when the admitted market cannot reasonably write the risk. The usual proof is a diligent search: a licensed surplus lines broker documents that admitted carriers were asked and declined, or that the coverage is not available from them. The Export List is the Commissioner’s shorter path. For the lines and risks on that list, the search step is waived. The broker still has reporting duties, and the insurer still has to be an eligible surplus lines market. What drops away is the paperwork theater of asking admitted companies that do not write commercial cannabis in the first place.

If you run a licensed grow, storefront, distribution warehouse, or manufacturing kitchen, you have probably already lived the admitted-market problem. Standard restaurant or retail packages exclude cannabis. Landlord certificates still have to be issued. Product, crop, and payroll still have to be underwritten one account at a time. The Export List does not invent a new policy. It recognizes that placing this class in the surplus lines market is the ordinary way the coverage gets written in California, not an exception that has to be re-proved on every submission.

What the list does not change

Federal Schedule I status did not move. Cannabis remains illegal under federal law even when the state license is current. That is why many admitted carriers still will not touch the occupancy, why banking and landlord requirements stay picky, and why surplus lines is still the reality for most commercial cannabis placements. An Export List entry does not convert a nonadmitted policy into an admitted one. It does not put the California Insurance Guarantee Association behind the claim the way an admitted insolvency would. It does not force a carrier to quote indoor cultivation, extraction, or delivery. Appetite, exclusions, and price are still underwriting decisions.

In 2026 operators still face expensive property — especially indoor cultivation, where electrical load, lighting, HVAC, and fire protection drive the application. Product liability is still a separate conversation from premises general liability. Workers compensation is still a payroll and class-code product, and “helpers” on a trim or delivery day are still a California employment question. The Export List makes the placement path cleaner. It does not make the risk cheaper.

What to ask a broker before you bind

Ask whether the market is admitted or surplus lines, and whether the form was placed under the Export List or after a documented diligent search. Ask which legal entity and which premises are named, and whether the form actually covers cannabis occupancy or only looks like a commercial package. Ask how property treats building, equipment, stock, and living plants — those are not interchangeable. Ask whether product liability is on the same paper as general liability or a separate limit, and what happens if you private-label or co-pack. Ask how workers compensation classes split cultivation, manufacturing, retail, and delivery. Ask who can issue an additional-insured certificate the afternoon a landlord or distributor demands one.

Bring licenses, canopy or square footage, construction and protection details for indoor rooms, payroll estimates, and any lease or distribution agreement that already names insurance wording. A broker who cannot explain surplus lines versus admitted, or who treats the Export List as a discount coupon, is not placing the account. Because we are independent, we shop markets that write California cannabis rather than forcing the class into a form that excludes it.

Talk to a Citrus Heights cannabis broker

Licensing up, renewing, or replacing a program that was bound before the 2025 Export List update? Call Lions & Coventry at (916) 967-7715. Office: 7816 Uplands Way, Ste C, Citrus Heights, CA 95610. License #0G22084. Monday–Friday 9am–5pm. Or use our contact form. This is not legal advice and not a CDI interpretation. It is how we talk through surplus lines cannabis placements with licensed operators who still have to buy property, product, and workers compensation in 2026.