LOS ANGELES—Insurance expert Ashlin Hadden says adult companies are facing fewer insurance options today than in the past.
“Most carriers won't touch this space and most agents don't understand it,” Hadden said. “Most policies are designed for very conventional businesses. Anything that falls outside of this narrow box often gets excluded, misclassified, or quietly declined. That is not a personal failure of the agent who wrote it. It is a systemic failure of the industry that trained them.”
Hadden, owner of Ashlin Hadden Insurance and founder of Essence Protection, a firm specializing in adult business insurance, said she gained valuable insight from hosting a booth at the AVN Expo in January.
“I left AVN with more clarity on what this industry actually needs and more conviction that almost nobody is delivering it, and that is not a comfortable thing to walk away with,” Hadden said. “It is also the reason Essence exists.”
As owner of a nationally-accredited insurance business, Hadden said her company understands the needs of her adult industry clients which include adult retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and other adult-related business ventures.
She explained that her company’s specialized knowledge can save company owners from thousands to millions of dollars on claims and legal disputes. She added that mainstream insurance policies are written with fine print that excludes claims related to adult products or content. Most insurance salespeople, though often well-meaning, are unaware because they rarely serve clients in the 18+ world.
While working in mainstream insurance, Hadden immediately noticed this coverage gap and saw it as an opportunity to serve the adult industry at a time when it needs it most.
“Showing up at AVN was a statement. We are not pretending to serve this industry from a desk in Indiana,” she confirms. “We are at the show floor, in the conversations, in the late-night dinners, in the rooms where this industry actually does business.”
While posted at the event, Hadden saw many attendees claim they were already securely insured. Her overview of their paperwork told a much different story.
“Founders pulled out declaration pages right there at the booth,” Hadden recalls. “People believed they had insurance and what they actually had was a policy that would void itself the second the carrier realized what their products actually were.”
Reflecting on her time in Las Vegas, Ashlin Hadden says her year will largely consist of creating affordable insurance packages for adult businesses of all kinds, including sex educators, events, and anyone who earns their living within the sexual wellness industry. Hadden is licensed to work with businesses in all 50 U.S. states
“At Essence, we do not retrofit generic policies and hope they work,” Hadden explained. “Adult businesses deserve a broker who has read the policy line by line, who knows where the silent exclusions hide, and who will not let them sign something that will fail them later.”
For more information, visit EssenceProtection.com or get a free quote by clicking here or contact Hadden directly via call or text at (765) 432-8989.
