News Releases

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The ACE Group of insurance and reinsurance companies today announced that the ACE Professional Risk underwriting team received Business Insurance magazine’s 2010 Innovation Award in the publication’s inaugural award program. The ACE USA underwriting team – led by Toby Merrill, National Product Leader and Vice President, Norm Rafsol, Senior Vice President, and Paul Cunney, Vice President – were recognized for their efforts in creating the ACE Digitech^® and ACE Privacy Protection^®policies. Combined with the eRisk Hub^®, a web-based loss prevention resource designed to help policyholders manage their risks, ACE’s policies provide customers a comprehensive risk transfer and mitigation tool to address the rising cost and frequency of data breaches.

An independent panel of judges, comprising professional risk managers, selected the 2010 Business InsuranceInnovation Award winners by scoring entries on the basis of originality, creativity, problem-solving, execution of concept and results achieved.

“We’re proud of the innovation, vision and creativity that Toby, Norm, Paul and the entire ACE Professional Risk underwriting team displayed in developing and launching this next generation product offering,” said Tim O’Donnell, President, ACE Professional Risk. “These ground-breaking policies not only respond to the rising cost and frequency of data breaches, but also address new privacy regulations for the handling of sensitive data and the increasing expenses associated with data breaches.”

Launched in 2009, the ACE Digitech and ACE Privacy Protection policies were updated in a number of key areas. First, the ACE underwriting and claims teams’ more than ten years of experience in handling technology and privacy matters, coupled with valuable customer feedback from clients and brokers, formed the foundation for capturing the intricacies of these very complex events to better meet their real-world needs going forward. Second, the eRisk Hub was expanded to include even more data breach vendors with deep expertise in pre- and post-breach disciplines. Third, the forms were modernized to respond to new “game changing” state and federal privacy legislation.

In its inaugural year, the Business Insurance Innovation program recognizes leadership and innovation in products and services designed for professional risk managers. Business Insurance will present the awards at a dinner during its 2010 Risk Management Summit, to be held in New York City on March 8. For more information on the Business Insurance Innovation Awards, please click here.

In the continuing effort to provide risk management thought leadership on privacy and network security issues, the ACE Professional Risk team recently launched an audio podcast titled: “Preparing for the Inevitable Data Breach: What to do Before Sensitive Customer and Employee Data is Breached, Stolen or Compromised.” To access the podcast (approximately 12 minutes in length), please visit:www.aceusa.com/News/Pages/Podcasts.aspx.

Staffed by a team of innovative underwriters, ACE Professional Risk is the operating unit within ACE USA, which distributes management liability, professional liability and surety products through retail brokers in the U.S. and Canada. For more information about ACE Professional Risk and its range of products and services, please visit:www.aceusa.com.

Celebrating 25 years of insuring progress, the ACE Group is a global leader in insurance and reinsurance serving a diverse group of clients. Headed by ACE Limited (NYSE:ACE), the ACE Group conducts its business on a worldwide basis with operating subsidiaries in more than 50 countries. Additional information can be found at: www.acelimited.com