Part of the ACE Progress Reports collection and co-authored by Lori Brassell-Cicchini, vice president of ESIS Catastrophe Services; Connie Germano, senior vice president of ACE Express Casualty; and Carol Laufer, executive vice president of ACE Excess Casualty, the white paper addresses a range of catastrophic events and details how risk managers can protect their investments both by demonstrating a culture of compliance with existing regulations and by proactively shaping their insurance programs.

“Companies that proactively develop and test a catastrophe-management plan have an advantage,” Brassell-Cicchini says. “When a disaster occurs, they can be completely focused on executing that plan and managing the intricacies of crisis communications. This can make or break a company's reputation, especially in today's world of sound bites and social-media networks.”

Large  companies already engage in many of the risk-management practices that would help them stay ahead of emerging risks, the report notes, including maintaining accident-reporting procedures and compliance hotlines as well as regularly reviewing their accident statistics and loss runs.