The last decade has seen a major innovation within disaster risk management through the emergence of standardized forecast-based action and financing protocols. Given sufficient lead time and forecast skill, a portion of relief funds may be shifted from disaster recovery to disaster preparedness, reducing losses in lives and property. While short-term early warnings systems are commonplace, forecasts at the monthly or seasonal scale are relatively underused, despite their potential value. Incorporating both, numerous relief organizations have developed operational early action protocols for natural hazards. These plans may have well-defined forecasts, trigger criteria, and identification of early actions ranging from weeks to months prior to a predicted disaster, but many have not been explicitly optimized to maximize financial or utilitarian returns. This study investigates the effect o...