Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to bring you the first issue of AIRCurrents for 2013. This month's articles represent across-section of what's to come this year. We will share with you some of the research our scientists and engineers have undertaken to update our existing models and to bring new ones to the market. This summer, AIR is releasing significant enhancements to our Japan earthquake model in light of the 2011 Tohoku event, a new, fully probabilistic pandemic model that estimates the excess mortality and life insurance costs associated with influenza events, and other major updates that improve our ability to realistically assess catastrophe risk worldwide.

Recent large loss catastrophes and new and emerging regulatory regimes mean that catastrophe models are under more scrutiny than ever before. Stakeholders at all levels of an organization are required to be more engaged in their risk management processes. Our recently launched "Modeling Fundamentals" series (published under the umbrella of the AIR Institute) aims to provide more insight into how our models are built, validated, and ultimately, how to use model results to make better business decisions.

The first installations of Touchstone™ are already slated. AIR's new software platform will transform how model users see, interact with, and analyze their risk. Touchstone™ represents a multi-year development effort across all departments at AIR. Last year, we featured a series of articles that introduced some of the technological innovations that made Touchstone possible. This year,we'll focus on how Touchstone can be used to inform a comprehensive understanding of a company's exposure across the globe (even for non-modeled perils and regions, as this month's article explains).

Finally, if you haven't done so already, be sure to check out our new social share bar that appears in each article and lets you share your favorite AIRCurrent with friends and colleagues. And click on the feedback icon to let us know your thoughts on the article, ask the authors a question, or to suggest topics for future AIRCurrents articles. We'd love to hear from you!

Wishing you all the best in 2013,

The AIRCurrents Editorial Team