That's a very good question. I thought that I could avoid the problem by getting award certificates issued by Canadian for flights on American. That way, I could always go to American and ask for a ticket but on reading the rules, it clearly says tht tickets must be issued by Canadian. If Canadian does not exist, the points and certificates have no value.
One option would be to insure the points. I am not sure of the cost of doing this but there is a link on the main page of Flyer Talk.