Tell us about your Records Retention Schedule Project

Information Requirements Clearinghouse is dedicated to bringing success to your Records Retention Schedule initiatives. Donald S. Skupsky is a recognized national expert and authority in records retention, and records retention legal requirements. Mr. Skupsky personally leads all consulting engagements. 

Please go to our contact us page and let us know what your interests are and how we can reach you. We will contact you to schedule a discussion so that we will be able to submit a detailed proposal on  your project, free of charge.

Retention Wizard tells you when you can legally destroy records.

Small- to medium-sized businesses now have a way to produce a retention schedule that shows the legal requirements for keeping…and destroying… old records. Whether paper or electronic, it’s expensive and risky to keep those old records hanging around when they are no longer needed.

Now you can develop a legally-defensible Records Retention Schedule tailored to your organization in under one hour.

The latest innovation from Information Requirements Clearinghouse, the most trusted resource for reliable records retention legal research for over 25 years, the Retention Wizard creates a retention schedule based on your answers to a few questions.

The Wizard draws on the proven methodology used in Retention Manager, our highly successful software and legal research tool for developing records retention schedules. It also utilizes Information Requirement’s extensive consulting experience for developing records retention schedules in almost every industry or regulated activity. [More]

Export Retetention Schedules to your Content Management system

Retention Manager lets you easily keep your electronic content systems synchronized  with your records retention policies.

Retention Manager keeps your CMS compliant

Content Management Systems (CMS) provide many records indexing and management functions, while associated Electronic Records Management (ERM) software provides the capability of applying records retention rules to e-records and destroying them according to procedures defined in the records retention schedule.

CMS systems require defensible records retention schedules to be programmed into them in order to make their records retention functionality more compliant and resilient to high cost discovery risk. 

Retention Manager allows you to export your retention schedule along with record series descriptions and retention periods to most major content management systems.

Please schedule a demo {link} with a customer service representative to find out how easily this is done.

Information Requirements has a strong working relationship with multiple major software companies who sell products that manage data as electronic records across the enterprise.

Electronic Content Management (ECM) systems provide much of the key records indexing and management functions, while associated Electronic Records Management (ECM) software provides the capability of applying records retention rules to e-records and destroying them according to procedures defined in the records retention schedule. All of these large vendor ECM products require defensible records retention schedules to be programmed into the ECM system in order to make their records retention functionality more compliant for their customers. 

Information Requirements’ Retention Manager provides the legal requirements, i.e., the basis for legal defensibility of Enterprise retention schedules. As such, Retention Manager is highly complementary to these ECM products, greatly enhances the ECM System’s appeal to potential customers, and empowers these customers to use the ECM system to more effectively manage records risk in the enterprise.

Information Requirements currently offers a product compatibility certification program for ECM products. The following companies or their agents have compatibility certification for Retention Manger:

If your content management system is not on this list, please contact us to find out how we can certify your system for Retention Manager synchronization. 
 

Included with Retention Manager

Retention Manager comes with legal citations, legal groups, record series, and categories that have proven to be effective and defensible in managing records in many organizations.

To get you going immediately, you start with. . .

• Full text of over 14,000 United States federal and state records retention laws (with multiple index entries for many complex laws).
• Over 400 pre-defined record series including descriptions and retention periods.
• Over 40 pre-defined legal groups (for grouping similar laws together) including initial retention suggestions.
• Over 125 pre-defined records retention categories for common business records, including initial retention suggestions.

Technical support and training:

• Unlimited telephone and e-mail technical support during normal business hours.
• Unlimited access to Internet support including user forum, frequently asked questions, tutorials and shortcuts. Internet access to interim updates to legal research, software enhancements and reports.
• Training sessions are held several times a year in Denver, Colorado. A reduced admission fee for one person is included with your initial purchase.

Retention Manager 3

Retention Manager gives you the most advanced tools and legal research to develop, implement and manage your legally defensible Records Retention Schedule.

• Retention Manager comes pre-loaded with the results of thousands of hours of legal research on records requirements already compiled, organized, and applied to an industry standard list of records categories.

• Sophisticated, pre-configured reports give you total control over development, training, and maintenance of your Records Retention Schedule.

• Assign your records categories and the retention requirements to departments or even countries using flexible options and productivity tools.

• Research and identify relevant statutes and regulations quickly from our award-winning database of over 21,000 records laws using the innovative Profile feature.

• Update your legal research  throughout the year.  We research records retention laws daily so you can identify those changes in the laws that affect your organization.

• Easiliy export your authorized records retention schedule to other content management software packages.

• Please Contact Us for more information or an online demonstration.

How It Works

First released in 1997, Retention Manager embodies the knowledge that Information Requirements has accumulated by continuous legal research and from hundreds of successful consulting projects.

First, you enter in specific information about your company at a detailed level, including type of industry, jurisdictions in which you do business, etc. The software then assembles a list of records categories with the legal requirements for how long each type of record must be kept.  Retention Manager will then produce a thorough, on-demand listing of laws governing retention requirements for each record category in that company profile.

You can then continue to do custom research in the Retention Manager legal database to refine your records schedule using the same resource utilized by expensive consultants. You have now produced a high quality, defensible Records Retention Schedule.

You can feel confident in your compliance with the law.  And that confidence continues wiht the ongoing legal research updates and analysis from Information Requirements Clearinghouse

In most law firms, the long-term storage of inactive records is costly and risky. Records can, and should, be legally destroyed in the regular course of business under an approved records retention schedule prior to reasonable anticipation of litigation, government investigation or audit.

Retention Wizard provides the legal research linked to the legal industry standard record series that make your records retention defensible and compliant.

Please click here to learn more about the Retention Wizard records retention software.  You will have greater peace of mind know that your old records are being handled in the right way.

Insurance agencies are governed by a complex system of laws and regulations that change from state to state. Knowing just how long you have to keep old records, and when you can legally destroy them, requires precise research into the thousands of laws about both insurance and general business recordkeeping.

Retention Wizard provides that legal research linked to the insurance industry standard record series that make your records destruction practices defensible, compliant, and smart.

If you do business in more than one state, you will want to add additional state legal research modules that make sure your agency is keeping its records correctly for each jurisdiction in which it operates.

Please click here to learn more about the Retention Wizard records retention software.  Let the Wizard keep you ahead of the compliance curve.  It’s a lot of protection for just a small investment.

Retention Manager Plus

Retention Manager Plus is a suite of services designed to help you get the most out of Retention Manager software.

The affordable Retention Manager Plus services get you up and running and then stay in optimal compliance with your records retention schedule.

Retention Manager Plus services include:

• Individual or group training in how to use Retention Manager for your organization.
• Project support to guide you in the making the right choices with Retention Manager's powerful options.
• Importing your current retention schedule into Retention Manager and linking its records to laws and policies
• Guidance on using Retention Manager's powerful custom research features
• Integrating Retention Manager with Electronic Content Management or Records Inventory system
• Step by step instructions on how to update your schedule to keep it compliant and current

Please click here to contact us about how Retention Manager Plus services can help you unleash the power of Retention Manager...affordably.

A real records schedule in under an hour...

With the Retention Wizard, you can easily produce a legally defensible, high quality Records Retention Schedule! 

• Over 400 industry standard records categories from which to build your Retention Guidelines
• Expert legal research in US Federal and US state law
• Laws are pre-assigned to all categories to determine legal retention requirements
• Industry leading database of thousands of record keeping laws already organized and assigned
• Industry standard retention schedule formats
• Regular, affordable legal research updates to keep you compliant and current

For more information on Retention Wizard, please contact us to discuss your records project or to schedule a demonstration

You can publish a professional Records Retention Schedule based on the industry's most respected legal research. Best of all, Retention Wizard is extremely affordable.

With the Wizard, you can proceed confidently to organize and destroy the records that are no longer needed, knowing that you are following the best available legal requirements research.

Retention Wizard also gives you detailed descriptions and flexible codes to help organize your records. You can easily customize the categories and retention periods, and then print your new retention schedule for approval and distribution. It couldn't be easier!

Retention Wizard incorporates the expertise we have acquired from being the leading authority on records retention requirements for over 25 years. Our customers call Retention Wizard a "consultant in a box". It provides you with over 400 standard records categories pre-linked to industry-leading Federal and state legal research for each type of record.

Retaining old, unneeded records is wasteful and risky. Let the Retention Wizard help you make them all disappear!

Retention Wizard: The Law Firm Edition

Getting to Less: Keep your firm’s records, including client files, no longer than they are required. [More]

Retention Wizard: The Insurance Agency Edition

For over 25 years, Information Requirements has been developing records retention programs that work. Regulations from every state on insurance recordkeeping are covered in this software.  The longer you wait the farther behind you get...[More]
 

Why a Retention Schedule?

All companies create records in the regular course of business. These records may be created to meet business needs, comply with existing legal requirements or to protect the organization in case of litigation. Some are physical, most are electronic.

A fundamental best practice for minimizing business risk is to implement a legally-defensible records management program. The first requirement of such a program is to determine the legal requirements for records retention and destruction. These requirements are the foundation for producing a defensible records retention schedule.

Next steps include creating,

1. Policies and Procedures that conform to the retention schedule,
2. consistent, well-documented Policy execution and enforcement,
3. integration with enterprise Content Management Systems.

There are no guarantees in a court of law, but following these steps can significantly help to establish “Good Faith” if an organization can’t produce records in litigation. This way, a company can substantially reduce both legal risk and the cost of electronic discovery.

Years ago, most attorneys thought it was prudent to keep records for long periods, or even “forever”, in case they were needed for some reason. Since the rise of multiple risks and costs associated with retaining records for too long, most attorneys now agree that records should be destroyed when no longer needed for any legal or business reason. “Keeping everything forever” did not require knowledge of the complex legal retention requirements affecting records, but the new data risk environment requires precise knowledge of what records must be kept, for how long, and how they may be destroyed.

There are thousands of U.S. laws governing how and how long companies must retain records, and they are steadily increasing in number. Responsibility for managing the risk around retaining and disposing of electronic information reaches ever deeper into management responsibilities. By improperly managing records retention, multiple organizations have been accused of obstruction of justice or destruction of evidence (spoliation), resulting in sanctions including adverse decisions or losses of rights in court. Not knowing the accurate and reasonably comprehensive records retention requirements for your company and your industry is no longer optional in corporate governance or fiduciary accountability.

Retention Manager 3 Overview

Retention Manager is the most advanced, full-featured software for developing and maintaining records retention schedules. Among its many advanced features, it provides:

• automated record keeping legal research for US Federal, all states, and many foreign jurisdictions 
• over 400 industry standard record series
• Industry leading database of over 15,000 record keeping laws
• user record inventory import
• export to compatible Content Management systems
• regular legal research updates
• Departmental retention schedules, office of record designation, jurisdiction groups
• much, much more

Build and maintain a sophisticated, legally defensible records retention schedule while keeping the legal research and records retention conclusions current with the law. [More]

What’s Included with Retention Manager?

Find out what you get with Retention Manager. This may include Industry specific editions that feature additional legal research and record series specific to your business that will jump-start your records retention program onto the right path.[More].

Retention Manager 3: Insurance Legal Research Module

Click here to find out how you can add the leading database of state level legal research on Insurance regulations to Retention Manager.  [More]

Retention Manager 3: International Legal Research Module

Supplement Retention Manager’s United States legal database with applicable laws and regulations from around the world.

Export Retention Manager retention schedules to most major Content Management Systems

Retention Manager has certified compatibility with most major content management systems. Read how you can export your retention schedule to your document management system.[More].

Retention Manager

Retention Manager is the most advanced Retention Schedule development and maintenance software available today. This full-featured records retention software includes automated linking of our state-of-the-art legal research to industry standard record series, with just the click of a button. Retention Manager is a full implementation of the industry standard "Skupsky Retention Method" for developing trusted and proven records destruction policies. Please click here to learn more.

Retention Wizard

The Retention Wizard software lets small- to mid-sized organizations create a defensible, legally researched Records Retention Schedule in under an hour. Easy to use, yet very powerful, this highly automated Records Retention Schedule generator instantly collects and connects the best records laws legal research in the industry to the included list of industry-standard records categories. Click here to learn more.