All clients should be notified in writing that the Firm’s policy is to destroy files, and that they may request copies of any data contained therein subject to Firm approval. We will notify clients in our annual engagement letter that our detailed retention policy is available on our website.
Retention periods commence immediately following the date of the financial reports or the taxable year in the case of tax returns and workpapers.
Information is an important asset of our firm. These policies apply uniformly to documents retained in either paper or electronic format. Our policy pertaining to the retention and destruction of email documents mirrors the policy for documents in other electronic or paper formats.
In relation to the professional services we provide, our policy is to retain documentation necessary to support our work (including opinions, resolution of differences, conclusions and research utilized in analysis), our correspondence with clients, our work product and items of continuing significance. Drafts or other documents not utilized should not be retained. Documents transmitted as attachments via email should be considered separately from the email messages to which they are attached. Original client records will be returned to clients and will not be a part of our ongoing files.
Current and Former Clients:
Work Paper Files
Client portals will be used for the exchange of documents. Documents will be removed from the portal annually. Tax returns will be stored on the portal for client access for 5 years..
Destruction of documents is as important as their storage. Paper documents other than those being returned to the client which are not to be retained in the firm’s files must be shredded if they contain confidential information or sensitive data. Any paper with a social security number, a federal ID number or a client name on it must be destroyed in this manner; never just dropped in the trash. Electronic documents are destroyed by deleting them from the medium on which they are stored, and then purging the medium itself. A written list of files (both paper and electronic) to be destroyed will be reviewed by each member for clients with potential issues that may require a longer retention period.