Huh? Once a record meets the retention it is destroyed/deleted per
policy; not transferred to another record series. The retention for
any record series is the LONGEST of those five researched and
evaluated retention factors.
As a fictional example... XYZ System Data record series;
Administrative (actual reference value) 2 years (record copy
holder dept. references in order to do their job)
Fiscal (if any; accountancy; internal audit needs) 3 years (based upon
internal audit's audit cycle)
Regulatory (if any; published federal, state, local regulations) 4
years (SEC published requirement)
Legal (general counsel's advice, if any; considerations for statutes
of limitations, legal and regulatory climate; legal oversight) 5
years; based upon corp. counsel concern for statute of limitations for
usage of plastic widgets...
Historic (if any; archival information; many industries and government
entities have a typical 1 - 3% of info. is historic in nature) None,
N/A for this record series
The longest of the above considered, researched, and evaluated
retention factors is 5 years; driven by Legal requirement (corp. counsel
advice). Therefore, the retention policy for XYZ System Data record
series is 5 years. After 5 years those records are deleted.
There is no holding records past the approved and authorized retention
policy (schedule) unless there is a hold order because of unresolved
audit, current or pending litigation, current or pending regulatory
investigation, etc.
Larry is certainly right in that with today's litigious society and our
legal climate, all information is subject to discovery if it still
exists, whether it should exist or not. There ARE many serious risks in
retaining information that exceeds the retention policy. One is that
you can provide your own poison; provide the information that
plaintiff's counsel can use to prove their case. You lose...; because
one of your departments did not follow the policy and retained data too
long; abrogating your own organization's policy. Second is that if your
organization does not match its information retention practices to your
retention policy, your program can be pronounced a "sham" and that puts
an adverse influence on the credibility of the whole organization; in
many function areas; not just RIM. See Enron. See Andersen Consulting
...; if you can find them. See "Buried Alive" by Commonwealth Films;
which depicts it in a video much better than I can describe in a note.
Anyhoo, great discussion of basic RIM matters.
Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno
>>> [log in to unmask] 10/2/2008 9:00 AM >>>
On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 08:48:03 -0700, Steven Whitaker
<[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>Here are the retention policy factors, and those researched and
>evaluated retention factors which decide the retention period for any
>record series:
>
>Administrative (actual reference value)
>Fiscal (if any; accountancy; internal audit)
>Regulatory (if any; published federal, state, local regulations on
>retaining info)
>Legal (if any; general counsel's advice, if any; considerations for
>statutes of limitations, legal and regulatory climate; legal
oversight)
>Historic (if any; archival information; many industries and
government
>entities have a typical 1 - 3% of info. is historic in nature)
>
>The retention policy of any information, for any record series, will
>(should be) be the LONGEST of the above researched and evaluated
>retention factors.
I won't disagree with Steve that these are the factors used in
determining
retention, but would suggest a specific order (and I don't think Steve
placed them in the order he would use either)
Regulatory
Legal
Fiscal and Administrative (Business Needs that exceed the above two)
Historic Value
It's also important to ensure your retention schedule includes
instructions
that state once records within a series meet the REQUIRED retention,
they
are transferred to a NEW RECORD SERIES, and that the retention period
for
the new series applies to them at that time.
Any decisions to retain records longer than required should be assessed
for
any potential risk this extended retention may pose for an
organization. In
today's legal climate, all information is subject to discovery if it
still
exists, and there may be risks to retaining certain information that
exceeds
it's value.
Larry
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