Data Retention - at the client level or policy level?

[Sara Lieser]

For those of you who have a data retention policy, does your retention period begin after a client is lost or when a policy is lost?  Or, are you even purging aged data on active policies?

[brinkerdana]

I purged policy data at the end of the state required maintenance period, consistantly throughout.  Had to create a Procedure since none had existed before. 


BTW, I worked for an agent years ago who had decades of dead files stored at his home.  When an old client asked if he had any records, he volunteered them and ended up involved in an E&O claim as a result.  Best to get rid of that stuff when you can.

[Lance Bateman]

Retention and destruction based on action date - date of policy term (even if currently still active, would get rid of old policy term stuff), date of claim closure, date memo sent, date of transaction, etc.  Customer only deleted if everything else related to their insurance has passed the retention/destruction guidelines.

[Gene Foraker]

That is interesting, Lance.   I always thought that we had to keep all info on previous terms policy until it was canceled the required number of years.   I'm sure you have looked into it more than I have.   We still have a number of old "core files" from years in the past containing original signed apps before we were scanning.   Agency contract said we have to keep those as long as the policy is in effect.   I suppose we could just go and scan them in with custom dates, but we don't need the space the files take up.   Would you also delete old digital apps and appraisals after your time period?

[Lance Bateman]

Yup, Gene, I hate to say I've dug into this one enough to have written and presented classes on retention/destruction and the dreaded "E-Discovery".

Basically, you're stating how long you keep policy related information - whether they are a current customer or not.  If you retain information on a customer forever as long as they are a current (or recent) customer, you've opened yourself for discovery forever.  If you set your retention and destruction policy AND follow it to only keep info for a certain period (most states require at least 5 years, general guideline is 7 years, if you do a lot of construction contractors you may want to look at 10 years, if you do architect and design - well, may never?) - then if anyone (including if you're not directly named in the suit) requests information beyond your retention period, you can respond (and save tons of money) that the information is not available per your policy.

[brinkerdana]

At my last agency where I had to write a procedure for data retention, I based it on Lance's info and that which I received in a class on the subject. 

Discovery can become a time and money eating monster.