What's New in Touchstone 2021 (9.0)

Information specific to this release is summarized on the Touchstone 2021 Release Documentation page on the AIR Client Portal. For related information, also on the portal, see the Hot Fixes and Touchstone Known Issues pages, both of which are periodically updated. To sign up for Touchstone notifications follow this path: AIR Client Portal > Profile > My Profile > Manage Subscriptions > Client-Confidential Content > Documentation and Software Downloads

Touchstone 2021 (9.0) includes enhancements to AIR models, flexibility (in modeling), marine modeling, terrorism modeling, and licensing by business unit. It also offers expanded database flexibility and loss import capabilities. This release also includes a technical preview of the new Next Generation Models (NGM) framework.

Models

The Scope of Model and Software Updates, available on the AIR Client Portal, provides high-level information about model updates and updates to the AIR Industry Exposure Database. You may also find the Update to Touchstone Loss Estimates version 8.0 Technical Update, available on the portal, helpful in understanding the effect of model changes on loss estimates.

  • Updated 2021 models include:

    • AIR Earthquake Model for Japan

    • AIR Typhoon Model for Japan

    • AIR Terrorism Model

    • AIR U.S. Hurricane Model for Offshore Assets

    • AIR Hurricane Model for the United States

      Note:

      In the 2021 release, AIR supports two views of the AIR Hurricane Model for the United States. The AIR view, the core version of the model, continues to reflect AIR's primary view of risk and is intended for all use cases other than for Florida rate making. This is the most up-to-date view of the model and supports precipitation flood, all changes made to storm surge in the Touchstone 2020 release, all catalogs/event sets, and all Touchstone software functionality. AIR has not submitted this view to the FCHLPM for certification. The Florida regulatory view is intended exclusively for the purposes of rate making in Florida. It maintains the same domain as the AIR view and includes updated events and some technical aspects to the vulnerability component to comply with Florida statutes. AIR has submitted this version to the FCHLPM for certification. In the regulatory view AIR supports only the 50K and 100K catalogs and does not support some software features such as CLF/CLA export or FUWLA.

  • Previous Model Version support: The 2021 release of Touchstone, adds the previous versions of the AIR Earthquake Model for Japan, the AIR Typhoon Model for Japan, and the U.S. Stochastic Terrorism Model. In this release, AIR has removed support for the previous version of the AIR Typhoon Model for Mainland China. Touchstone will run the previous model version of the models based on the latest geography updates and financial module changes, which could cause loss differences between Touchstone 2020 (8.0) and 2021 (9.0). The previous model versions are labeled as “Archive” in the event set name.

  • Model-related geospatial layers: This release supports new and updated model-related geospatial layers.

  • Location-level event intensity data: Location-level event intensity data has been updated to match the updates to the AIR Typhoon Model for Japan and the AIR Earthquake Model for Japan.

  • AIR Severe Thunderstorm Model for the United States: In Touchstone 2021, AIR introduced support for the import of sub-peril codes individually for hail, tornado, and straight-line winds in your exposure data. The enhancement also supports export of those codes. The new sub-peril codes are stored in the database. However, in Touchstone 2021 the AIR Severe Thunderstorm Model for the United States will only recognize the main severe thunderstorm peril within an exposure and will not recognize the new sub-perils. Full functionality will be available with the update to the model in 2022.

Flexibility in Modeling

  • To provide flexibility in modeling, Touchstone 2021 allows users to create custom frequencies to use in stress testing, model validation, and climate change scenarios. This feature, combined with the ability to create custom vulnerabilities that was released in 2020, provides clients with a more comprehensive and robust way to customize model output.

  • Other loss modification enhancements include:

    • Touchstone Loss modification factors provide a simple way for users to customize their view of risk. Some of the most frequently used factors are those that are event-based, such as accounting for unmodeled sub-perils losses; therefore, the 2021 release has enhanced this feature by supporting a very large number of event-based rules in the Loss Modification template.

    • Users can now apply Select All, Select Inverse, and Select None in columns that support multiselection: Coverage, Line of Business, Construction Codes, Occupancy Codes, and Location UDF1. For the Year Built and Number of Stories columns, users can enter multiple values separated by a comma or enter a range of values.

    • To create internal views or run stress tests, users can run only the modified loss and not generate the associated AIR loss analysis as the baseline. This also allows them to use Loss Modification at the point-of-sale for underwriting. In this case, users cannot export the CLF.

Marine LOB Modeling

  • AIR continues to enhance its marine modeling solution. This release supports damage functions for an expanded list of construction and occupancy codes for the modeling of marine cargo, fine arts, and specie risks. AIR provides support for the new codes in the following models: AIR Hurricane Model for the United States, AIR Earthquake Model for the United StatesAIR Earthquake Model for Japan, AIR Typhoon Model for Japan, AIR Tropical Cyclone Model for the Caribbean, and AIR Earthquake Model for the Caribbean.

Terrorism Modeling

In a continuation of workflow enhancements to improve the modeling of Terrorism risks and to streamline the A.M. Best SRQ process, AIRhas added the following feature:

  • Touchstone 2021 includes a new weapon type, Medium Truck (10-ton TNT). In addition, AIR has renamed Delivery Truck (6-ton TNT) to Small Truck (6-ton TNT).

Geospatial Analysis

  • Users can remove overlapping rings for Dynamic and Grid Ring analyses.This helps users to identify top, distinct (non-overlapping), aggregate accumulations across the entire portfolio. It helps users determine the ring that accumulates the highest loss for exposures that are surrounded by several rings. This is part of completing the SRQ reporting process.

License by Business Unit

  • This new, optional business-unit level license feature enables clients to vary Touchstone functionality across multiple business units, within the same Touchstone installation. Each business unit then has access only to the features and functionality that are most relevant to each business unit.

Other Enhancements

  • Summary EP Table: This release enables you to switch axes (transpose) and view AAL (EV) and SD values at the bottom of the table. You can also transpose the results of CAT XOL analyses.

  • Currency updates: The Touchstone currency table has been updated. The table now supports Belarus BYN currency (in addition to BYR); BYN is "Belarusian Ruble" and BYR is "Belarus Old Ruble". The table has also been updated with the VEF (Bolivar Fuerte) currency exchange rate.

    Loss Modification Template: In Touchstone 2021 (9.0), you can now apply Select All, Select Inverse, and Select None in columns that support multi-selection: Coverage, Line of Business, Construction Codes, Occupancy Codes, and Location UDF1.

  • FUWLA: AIR has modified the Fast Underwriting Loss Analysis (FUWLA) feature in Touchstone 2021 (9.0). Touchstone now triggers FUWLA analyses by model rather than by event sets or perils. See the Touchstone release notes for the list of models that support FUWLA.

  • Disaggregation: AIR has extended loss disaggregation support to leverage the Geocode Match Level mapping import functionality introduced in Touchstone 2020 for all regions across the globe. The loss disaggregation logic now determines disaggregation based on the GeoMatchLevelCode value; when users import their own geo match levels with their user-supplied geocodes and then map them to the GeoMatchLevelCode, the loss disaggregation logic can determine which user-supplied geocodes to disaggregate based on the country and geocode resolution. AIR made additional loss disaggregation updates for many countries to address some limitations in the existing disaggregation logic. For detailed information about this enhancement, these loss disaggregation changes, and the impact on loss numbers, see the Touchstone 2021 release notes.

  • Non-catastrophe peril detailed loss analyses: Support is no longer available in Touchstone. Therefore, non-catastrophe peril analysis will no longer be available as a separately licensable analysis type. Touchstone still supports the ‘NC’ peril code in the exposure management and Geospatial modules.

  • ACORD Import: The option is no longer available in Touchstone.

  • The standalone AIR EDM Data Converter now includes the conversion of Catastrophe Excess of Loss, Per Risk, and overarching Quota Share and Surplus Share reinsurance terms. Users can now use this tool to import and convert exposure portfolios with treaty information. This enhancement will streamline users' workflows significantly by removing the need to manually prepare the treaty data for import into Touchstone. This feature is currently not available in the integrated EDM Data Converter tool (available via AIR ImportExpress).

Data Updates

  • Annual updates to U.S/ ZIP Codes, ZIP Code population-weighted centroids, and ZIP Code boundary data.

  • Updates to administrative and postal data for Japan enable you to import exposure data for Japan exposures for use with the Touchstone 2021 (9.0) model updates for Japan. Touchstone will geocode and backfill exposure data records based on the available and supported administrative and postal boundary data and country-specific import validation rules. Changes may include changes in Area (prefecture), Subarea (municipality), Postal codes and names, boundaries, and code formats; there are new and deprecated codes and the source postal names have changed. Touchstone also supports input of Sompo codes, which are then remapped to the appropriate administrative and/or postal code levels. AIR also updated the forward and reverse geocoding logic and methods used for Japan address data.

  • Annual updates to the Offshore Industry Exposure Database and AIR's Property-Specific Database (PSD). The PSD, which is used in Touchstone Data Quality analyses, now contains over 88.7 million residential property records and over 6.8 million commercial property records for U.S. residential and commercial properties.

  • AIR has updated Geospatial layers related to: AIR Earthquake Model for Japan, AIR Typhoon Model for Japan, and AIR Inland Flood Model for Japan. See the Touchstone release notes for the list of new and updated Geospatial layers.

    Note:

    However, AIR has retired a subset of Geospatial layers. For the list of layers, refer to the appendix in the release notes.

  • Updates to Hazard profiles, and implementation:

    • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Zone

    • Base Flood Elevation (BFE)

    • Elevation data in Tropical Cyclone and Flood Hazard profiles to match with the updated model elevation data. See the Touchstone release notes for the list of updates.

  • Updates to LLEI (location-level event intensities) for: AIR Typhoon Model for Japan PMV (previous model version support), AIR Typhoon Model for Japan, AIR Earthquake Model for Japan, andAIR Earthquake Model for Japan PMV.