This policy is established to ensure that the records of the USM Foundation are retained as required by law and/or for a period of time deemed to be sufficient given the content and purpose of the record. “Records” includes all forms of communications or information relating to USMF and its business which have been reduced to “hardcopy” such as paper or film or which can be retrieved from electronic media. "Records" also includes all incoming and outgoing records as well as drafts, notes, calendars and personal records relating to Foundation business.

 

Retained records/documentation is stored in:

 

  • Iron Mountain
  • Papersave
  • On-site (locked storage room Elkins building)

 

Failure to retain records as required by law could subject employees and USMF to penalties and fines, cause the loss of rights, obstruct justice, spoil potential evidence in a lawsuit, place USMF in contempt of court, or seriously disadvantage USMF in litigation.

 

USMF expects all employees and other people who generate and access Foundation records to fully comply with this policy. In addition, if an employee or other person believes or is informed by USMF, that Foundation records are relevant to litigation or potential litigation (i.e., a dispute that could result in litigation), then those records must be preserved until USMF in-house or outside legal counsel determines the records are no longer needed. This exception supersedes any previously or subsequently established destruction schedule for those records.

 

Retention time periods are noted below unless needed for a longer period of time due to audit requirements or litigation:

 

Institutional and Legal Records:

  • Articles of Incorporation; By-Laws; Annual Reports- Permanently
  • Minutes of Director and Director Committee Meetings – Permanently
  • Copyright and Trademark Registration – Permanently
  • Contracts (including agreements with investment managers) and Leases – while active plus 7 years

Deeds and Titles – Permanently Licenses – While active plus 7 years

 

Federal and State Tax Records (retained in files within USMF office unless noted below)

  • Form 990, Form 990T and State returns with attachments– Permanently
  • Form 990, Form 990T and State Support – 7 years
  • IRS Exemption Application and Determination Letter - Permanently
  • Private Letter Rulings, and Revenue Agent’s Reports – Permanently
  • IRS Audit Files – 7 years
  • Trust Returns for which USMF is trustee – 7 years
  • Unclaimed Property Reports – Permanently

 

Litigation Records

  • Claims – While Active plus 2 years
  • Court Documents and Records - While Active plus 2 years
  • Deposition Records – While Active plus 2 years
  • Discover Materials – While Active plus 2 years
  • Litigation Files – While Active plus 2 years
  • Records relevant to pending or threatened litigation should be retained until litigation is resolved or threat of litigation gone.

 

Capital Property Records

  • Inventory – While Active plus 7 years
  • Property Records including motor vehicle records – While Active plus 7 years
  • Depreciation Schedules – While Active plus 7 years
  • Property Improvement Records – While Active plus 7 years
  • Sales – 7 years
  • Tax Exemption Records – Life of Property plus 7 years

 

Mortgage, Bonds, and Other Long-Term Debt Records – While Active plus 7 years

 

Memorandums of Understanding with Donors – Permanently (in fireproof safe)

 

Bank Records

  • Bank Reconciliations and support, bank statements, deposit records, wire transfer records and cancelled checks- 7 years (except for important payments such as payments for purchase of significant property or lawsuit settlements) which should be retained permanently)

 

Insurance (insurance broker retains)

  • Property Insurance Policies – Life of Policy
  • Liability Insurance Policies – Life of Policy
  • Insurance Claim Documents – Settlement plus 7 years

 

Payroll- Records

  • Individual Employee Files
    • Wage and Salary History – 7 years
    • Salary or Current Rate of Pay – 7 years
    • Payroll Deductions – 7 years
    • Time Sheets – 7 years
    • W-2 Form – 7 years
    • W-4 Form – 7 years
    • Garnishments – While Active plus 7 years
  • Other
    • Bi-weekly payroll registers – 7 years
    • Payroll reports to Federal, State and Municipal Agencies – 7 years
    • Payroll Journal Entries – 7 years after final payment
    • Unclaimed Salaries and Wages – until required to be reported to State
    • Notice of Unemployment Claims – 7 years
  • Employment
    • Job Announcements and Advertisements – 1 year
  • Applicants Not Hired
    • Applications or Resumes - 1 year
  • Applicants Who are Hired
    • Applications or Resumes – While Active plus 7 years
    • Background Investigations Results (summary letter from contractor for current employees and report for new hires) – While Active plus 7 years
    • Letters of Recommendations – While Active plus 7 years

 

General Files (after expiration)

  • Pension Plans – 7 years
  • Retirement Plans – 7 years
  • Flexible Spending Plans – 7 years
  • All other employee benefit plans – 7 years

 

Personnel Files

  • Applications and Resumes for Employment – While active plus 7 years
  • Unsuccessful – 1 year
  • If EEO suit – until resolution
  • Employment History including performance evaluations, disciplinary warnings and termination or layoff notices– While Active plus 7 years
  • Beneficiary designations – While Active plus 7 years

 

Financial Records – including machine-sensible records that contain sufficient transaction – level detail so that the information and the source documents underlying the machine –sensible records can be identified.

  • Description of Accounting System – While Active
  • General ledgers, subsidiary ledgers and year end trial balance – Permanently
  • Journal Vouchers and Backup – While Active plus 7 years
  • Account Reconciliations – While Active plus 7 years
  • Annual Audits – Permanently
  • Audit Reports and Work Papers – While Active plus 7 years
  • Accounts Payable ledgers and schedules, vouchers for payments and voucher registers and checks– 7 years
  • Accounts/ Notes Receivable ledgers and schedules – 7 years
  • Unitized Bank Reports – 7 years

 

Revenue Records

  • Contributions, Grant and Non-Gift Records – all documents supporting the transaction such as donor correspondence -7 years
  • Subsidiary Ledgers and Posting Reports – 7 years

 

Investment Records

  • All reports received from investment managers relating to investment performance, firm operations and market valuations – 7 years
  • Monitoring Records – 7 years

 

Accounts Payable Records

  • Processed and Paid Disbursement and Expense Reimbursement Requests – 7 years
  • Subsidiary Ledgers and Posting Reports – 7 years
  • Check Preparation Reports – 7 years
  • 1099 and 1042 Reports – 7 years
  • Check Register – 7 years

 

Paper or Electronic Correspondence

  • General/Routine – Screen annually and destroy that material for which no further reference is required. At the end of 2 years all e-mails will be automatically deleted unless noted to be saved. However, employees should periodically review e-mail folder for deletion.
  • Legal – see litigation
  • Investment – see investment

 

Voice mails should be deleted as soon as receiver responds to caller or matter resolved whichever is later.

 

Internal Audit

  • Reports and Responses – 7 years

 

Retention:

USMF usually retains the most recent two years’ worth of accounting and payroll documents at USMF’s business office. Documents older than two years are usually archived in an off-site facility. (Currently Iron Mountain, Jessup, MD) However, documents older than two years may be retained on site. All other documents are retained on site.

 

USM Information Technology performs back-ups on disks 5 nights per week. The disks are kept in a safe on site. One set of disk is rotated off site weekly, per USM policy. Backups include the shared drives on the file server (e.g. P: drive, I: drive, Q: drive, etc.); individual drives on the file server (e.g. every user’s H: drive), and the application servers (e.g. BSR/Advance DB and application systems, USMF website).  Documents stored in cloud services (e.g. Microsoft OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint) are *NOT* backed up on-site; we rely on Microsoft’s redundancy and recoverability that is part of our SLA with Microsoft:

Employees should consult with CFO prior to destroying any record not identified above. 

 

Disposal:

The CFO is responsible for oversight and approval for the retention and final disposition of records.

  1. Any document containing the personal information of Foundation employees, vendors, or donors is secured and maintained in locked cabinets and will be shredded when disposition occurs to prevent the document from causing harm to the person (i.e. identity theft and employee privacy).
  2. USMF will have an annual “clean-up” day during which employees will dedicate their time and

efforts to document storage and disposal in compliance with this policy.

 

Privacy:

Many records subject to record retention requirements contain confidential information. For example, medical records of employees must be stored separately. Employee background reports must be stored separately in the custody of General Counsel’s Office.

 

Compliance:

The Internal Auditors will periodically audit to ensure compliance.