I have seen some excellent advice from others in responses posted today. We have been through four separate events at offsite vendors in the last year. It is impossible to know the innate value of your contents. I echo the idea that you evaluate the full cost of remediation in the event of a disaster. For example, if you store 10,000 boxes at a particular facility, and you determine the average cost of restoration to be $158 per box (a number I made up out of the air), then you would want coverage of $1,580,000. Don't forget to allow for the rate of growth each year.
Now, the odds are that you won't end up remediating everything in a large-scale event. Some records don't justify the cost and effort. But you will expend resources to make that determination. Make sure you take into consideration all of the recovery efforts. Keep a journal and keep receipts. Know ahead of time what the insurance will cover.
Finally, there is a very good chance that some of the materials will be destroyed in a disaster. This leads to a different solution. We have, in these instances, worked with our stakeholders to identify the records that must be reproduced (if possible). Such activity may lead to transportation, copying, scanning, indexing, shipping, and fees. Add to that the cost of the people involved. You may send a paralegal to get copies of court records. You may hire temps to copy materials in another department.
We have found that the percentage of records that have to be recreated is much lower than the percentage that are remediated. People are less inclined to think they have to have something when it takes a lot of effort compared to simply saying "repair that". Thus, the level of insurance coverage to reproduce ends up being close to the cost to remediate.
Hey, this is all anecdotal from our experiences. I'm not suggesting that I understand the nature of your records. It is, and always has been, a conundrum for the profession. But our experience makes us comfortable with the processes we have chosen to protect our information assets. I hope it helps even one colleague overcome a challenging experience.
David B. Steward
Director of Records
HUSCH BLACKWELL LLP
4801 Main Street, Suite 1000
Kansas City, MO 64112
Direct: 816.983.8860
Fax: 816.983.8080
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