For adult businesses, swimming against the mainstream current makes it hard to find an insurance company that can keep up. One company is aiming to change that.
Essence Protection, founded and managed by lead agent Ashlin Hadden, is an Indiana-based firm with a focus on serving adult brands, retailers, sex educators and adult workshop coordinators.
Hadden says that her journey in the insurance business “started with a little bit of fire and turned into a whole lot of heart.”
Some of the obstacles Hadden encountered early in her career seemed to mirror the experiences of the adult retail stores that would become her clients. Like those stores, she discovered, even her mere presence could be enough to stir up trouble.
“When I first entered the insurance industry, I was told very plainly that this was a man’s industry and that men consistently outperformed women in insurance,” Hadden recalls. “I did not take kindly to that statement at all. I walked in with a bit of a chip on my shoulder and a very clear intention to prove that man wrong.”
This stoked a rebellious flame in Hadden, who was less interested in climbing the corporate ladder than helping the people who came to her office seeking her expertise and assistance.
“I love being the calm voice when someone feels overwhelmed or dismissed,” she says.
It didn’t take long before Hadden grew frustrated with corporate-focused insurance. She was limited in whom she could serve, which risks were acceptable and, ultimately, how far she could go to help someone.
“I realized that if I wanted to truly serve my clients the way they deserved, I needed to build something of my own,” Hadden remembers. “So I left and opened my own brokerage firm. That decision changed everything.”
Now in control of every aspect of her business, Hadden could focus fully on serving her clients as she envisioned. She soon discovered strong demand for her offerings among clients in the sexual wellness and pleasure sectors.
“People would call me absolutely frustrated because they could not find insurance anywhere,” she recalls. “Brick-and-mortar shop owners were being dropped. Online store owners were being declined. I had one client call me in tears because their existing insurance agency came across their Instagram account and decided they no longer wanted to be associated with their ‘risk.’”
Her client’s rejections, Hadden says, nearly always came without warning. There was no conversation, just judgment.
“Those moments stayed with me,” she attests.
As she considered her options, Hadden was inspired by a core value instilled by her late mother: that serving others is the greatest calling a person can pursue in life. This belief became the spark that ignited Essence Protection, a niche insurance offering that has become Hadden’s passion.
“Service can show up in many different ways,” Hadden observes. “This was mine. Protecting people who were struggling to get help. Advocating for an industry that has been misunderstood, judged and overlooked for far too long.”
Essence Protection’s all-female team includes women of all ages, from college-aged young adults to women in menopause. For Hadden, providing understanding through lived experiences, woman to woman, is of the utmost importance.
Of course, Essence Protection serves clients of all genders — inclusiveness being another cornerstone of Hadden’s personal ethics.
“We are all human,” Hadden affirms. “We all deserve respect. We all deserve protection. And this industry deserves to be treated with dignity, professionalism and care.”
Essence, she insists, is not just about insurance.
“It is about making people feel safe, seen and supported while they build businesses they are proud of,” Hadden says. And that is something I will always stand behind.”
Serving a unique industry demands specialized coverage options. In the typically rigid world of insurance sales, Hadden’s adult retail and sexual wellness clients genuinely have no other dependable choices to rely on.
“We do not retrofit generic policies and hope they work,” says Hadden. “We design coverage intentionally, understanding how these businesses truly operate, market and grow. Our clients deserve insurance that shows up when it matters, not policies that disappear the moment things get real.”
Hadden highlights a few key areas on which she focuses to help her clients stay cool, calm and covered.
“A major problem is silent exclusions,” she explains. “Many business owners think they are fully covered, but hidden inside policy language are exclusions related to adult content, sexual wellness products or specific materials often used in this area.”
Hadden highlights, for example, latex, a material excluded from bodily injury coverage by other mainstream insurance companies but absolutely necessary when a consumer files a severe allergy claim.
“Another major gap is misclassification,” she reveals. “I routinely see adult novelty and sexual wellness brands placed into generic retail categories that do not accurately reflect what they sell or how they operate.”
According to Hadden, once a retailer’s true category — adult — is disclosed to an insurance provider, they may cancel coverage, deny a claim or refuse renewal. For most of Hadden’s clients, this comes as a surprise, since their previous agencies never properly reviewed their business before offering coverage.
“There is also a serious lack of understanding about product liability and online sales exposure,” she explains. “Many of these brands are selling intimate products, supplements or wellness items nationwide or even globally, yet they are insured as if they are a small local storefront.”
As many adult brands do business internationally, Hadden warns, they’re left out in the cold on claims related to bodily injury, manufacturing defects, imports, fulfillment centers, customer misuse allegations and recalls.
Perhaps worst of all, when an adult business tries to work with a traditional insurance agent, the bias and discomfort of both the agent and their employer can lead to significant gaps in coverage. These gaps often won’t be noticed by the client until someone is already at their door with a lawyer.
“That discomfort leads to poorly structured policies and clients being quietly shown the door,” says Hadden. “Most policies are designed for very conventional businesses. Anything that falls outside of that narrow box often gets excluded, misclassified or quietly declined.”
Looking ahead, Hadden is developing coverage to protect her clients from being sued over recently enacted age verification laws that apply to 18+ products and content. She says she’s actively working with carriers to create proprietary coverage options for panicked brands worried about potential AV-related claims if their website systems fail.
Beyond contracts and legal jargon, however, Hadden is also looking forward to continuing to work with an industry that’s just as personable, passionate and fun as she is — even when she’s making sure someone doesn’t end up with a lawsuit in their lap.
“Essence is about evolving alongside the industry, anticipating risk before it becomes a crisis and building protection that grows with our clients,” she says. “My vision is for Essence to continue being the place where people feel heard, supported and confidently covered as they build businesses that matter.”
