What's new in Touchstone 2022 (10.0)

Information specific to this release is summarized on the Touchstone 2022 Release Documentation page on the Client Portal. For related information, also on the portal, see Hot Fixes and Services Packs on https://www.air-worldwide.com/client-support/Hot-Fixes/; the content is periodically updated. To sign up for Touchstone notifications follow this path: Client Portal > Profile > My Profile > Manage Subscriptions > Client-Confidential Content > Documentation and Software Downloads

Touchstone 2022 (10.0) includes enhancements to Verisk models and the user interface, data updates, and more. The Scope of Model and Software Updates, available on the Client Portal, provides high-level information about the updates. This release also includes a technical preview of the new Next Generation Models (NGM) framework.

Models

The Scope of Model Updates, available on the Client Portal, provides high-level information about model updates. You may also find the Update to Touchstone Loss Estimates Technical Update 2022, available on the portal, helpful in understanding the effect of model changes on loss estimates.

• Split of Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for the U.S. and Canada (M20): As part of the update to the Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for the United States, Verisk split model M20 into two models, Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for the United States (M22) and Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for Canada (M26). Verisk created a new catalog for the Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for the United States and updated the M20 catalog to M26, Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for Canada.

• Subperil support in the Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for the United States: We introduced support for individually coding exposures for hail, tornado, and straight-line winds with sub-peril codes and running detailed loss analyses individually for these perils.

• Support for additional codes in the Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for the United States: We introduced expanded support for combinations of construction/occupancy codes for consistency with the Verisk Hurricane Model for the United States. In addition, the Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for the United States supports occupancy code 374 (greenhouses), construction codes 239 and 240 (wind turbines), and the 2000-series construction codes. The model also supports additional secondary risk characteristics: Gross Area and Certified Structures (IBHS) for wind; Roof Geometry, Roof Deck, Wall Attached Structure, and Gross Area for hail.

  Important: Peril codes are different in Geospatial analysis than they are in Detailed Loss analysis. We do not support the new sub-peril set code for the Verisk Severe Thunderstorm Model for the United States, which is 11534336. Instead, we are still using the old sub-peril code, which is 2. This mismatch creates an issue when a user tries to join detailed loss results with geospatial analysis accumulation output.

• Previous model version support: Touchstone users can evaluate, in the same software version, updated versions of models and validate them against the model's previous versions. Refer to the release notes for information about which models include the previous model version. In this release, we updated the 10k World AP (Archive) suite of event sets to allow users to access the models that were current as of Touchstone 2021. Regional event sets (for example, 10k US AP, 10k Japan AP) have been renamed to ‘Previous Model’ and will continue to access previous versions of models from prior releases. Also, in the 10k World AP (Archive) suite of event sets, the default for the "Include Short-term Seismicity Events (Applicable for NZ EQ TD Only)" option is Off; this option is On by default for the 10k World AP (2022) suite of event sets.

• Precipitation flood loss enhancement: For the Verisk Hurricane Model for the United States, users can add a percentage of precipitation flood loss to exposure data without precipitation flood sub-peril codes, either as a single percentage or by line of business (LOB). To do this, they enable the precipitation flood percentage option in the Loss Analysis Options: Precipitation Flood Options dialog box.

Other enhancements

• User interface: We updated the user interface to reflect Verisk rebranding.

• Left navigation pane: Dynamic sizing of this pane enables you to view all items—exposure views, results, reinsurance, and reports in the pane—without having to open each section one at a time. By default, the sections are expanded

• Save storm surge/precipitation flood percentages in loss analysis templates: You can now save storm surge/precipitation flood percentages in loss analysis templates.

• Versioning updates: We updated all logs with banner and platform name/identification to the current product version.

• Version information for hot fixes and service packs: We enhanced a tool provided in Touchstone 2021 that provides version information. The enhancement lists each node with its applied hot fix and service pack.

• Reinsurance API updates: Touchstone API users can now programmatically create, update, and delete reinsurance programs and their treaties. For detailed information, refer to the Touchstone 2022 API documentation, which is available on the Developer Zone.

• Analyze Re updates: Touchstone 2022 makes additional metadata elements accessible to Analyze Re to allow clients to easily identify analysis results by applying filters on the elements on the Analyze Re side. The elements include Analysis Name, Analysis SID, Application Version, Project Name, Event Set Name, Demand Surge, Currency Exchange Rate Set Name, Peril Set, and Loss Perspective.

Data updates

• We updated geospatial layers in the Geospatial and Hazard modules. See the Touchstone release notes for the list of updated layers.

• Annual update to the Offshore Industry Exposure Database.

• Annual updates to the hazard and geospatial modules based on new and updated models:

  • Base flood elevation (BFE) and FEMA data in the Hazard module.

  • FEMA layer update in the Geospatial module.