A successful businessman with a growing footprint in several states says he was shocked when he was refused a personal life insurance policy by Mutual of Omaha, one of the nation’s largest insurers.

The company informed Derek Peterson, CEO of Terra Tech Corp., in a letter dated June 13 that “we cannot accept premium[s] from individuals or entities who are associated with the marijuana industry.”

Peterson had, like other state-legal cannabis businessmen, lost bank accounts when compliance officers decided the burden of abiding by federal rules was too much, but denial of a personal insurance policy is not a common industry complaint.

“This was to get some additional coverage for me personally, my family,” he says. “On a personal level, to have something like this happen, where I can’t get protection for my family … it just seems ridiculous and archaic at this point.”

Peterson’s business interests include a large medical marijuana cultivation and retail facility in Oakland, California, ordinary horticulture on the East Coast and a developing network of cannabis cultivation and retail facilities in Nevada. [Read more at US News & World Report]