Electronic Document Retention
Last week I attended an excellent program put on by the Directors Round Table. The title of the event was: DUTIES & LIABILITIES OF DIRECTORS & C-SUITE MANAGEMENT.
Much of the discussion centered on the subject of company and board investigations in this very business unfriendly environment. It is very scary with the administration pushing for the SEC and others to rack up a number of hits now that they have failed so publicly with the Madolf scandal and the Banking situation.
Clearly as Board Members we need to every accusation or indication of any possible wrong doing very seriously and get out in front of fast. The cost of a typical board investigation seams to be $250K to 3 or 4 Million. The largest factor impacting most investigations is the amount of data that must be searched (emails, documents, company records, PC and Smart Phone data dumps, etc.). This is one place we can all take some action (as long as we have no hint of any upcoming investigation), make sure that you do not retain anything any longer than absolutely required by law. Time to update your electronic document retention policies. The more you have the more it cost!
