Practice Area Overview

Crop Insurance

Protecting crops, livestock, and business with appropriate risk management and insurance strategies is crucial today for farmers and agribusiness companies.  At Olsson Frank Weeda, our attorneys bring a unique depth of experience from both government and the private sector to the fast-growing area of agricultural risk management -- from federal crop insurance to futures and derivatives trading, risk retention, and traditional insurance.

Clients often find risk management a uniquely complex challenge.  Our lawyers are skilled at helping them navigate the complicated federal and state regimes and business structures under which farmers and agribusiness must operate.  Whether the goal is to develop cost-effective risk management solutions to business needs, to respond to agriculture loss emergencies, or to operate effectively within the insurance provider industries, we can help.

For more information regarding what our attorneys can do for you, contact Olsson Frank Weeda today.

What We Have Accomplished for Our Clients

At Olsson Frank Weeda, we have represented numerous clients in the risk management field – both users and providers – and have achieved results. Our attorneys:

• Played a key role in establishing one of the country’s first successful risk retention groups, and have continued to serve as the risk retention industry trade association’s general counsel.  In this role, we have submitted amicus briefs in virtually every major risk retention legal case since 1989.

• Developed and won government approval for the first livestock price-risk crop insurance.  In the process, we succeeded in winning legislative authorization for the approach and obtaining regulatory clearances from USDA and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.  In addition, we built a business model that has now been expanded to several forms of livestock and to states across the country.

• Helped farmers win coverage for their lost crops in contested claim situations.  In one case, we helped a group of five hundred Minnesota sugar beet producers win a major arbitration award to cover widespread freeze losses; in another, we worked with individual farm producers to informally resolve conflicts with policy providers.

• Represented crop insurance companies, agents, contractors, and producer groups in navigating complex dealings with the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.

We are proud of the unique skill and experience we bring to the agricultural risk management field, and we believe we can offer effective representation that is tailored to client needs.

Crop Insurance Attorneys/Senior Policy Advisors:

• Philip C. Olsson
• David L. Durkin
• Kenneth D. Ackerman
• Charles W. Stenholm (Senior Policy Advisor)