Back Paper vs Paperless

I started my own agency about 6 months ago... and since it's a scratch agency I've been able to keep it "paperless" so far. By that I mean that I scan every piece of paper that comes in through the front doors, my faxes are delivered to me via my email and well, email is inherently paperless. I've been keeping a file folder of all the paperwork separated by company only. All the lines of business and various paperworks are all shoved in there. Here's my question, according to California law, am I required to retain all this paper? Or, because I have scanned copies of the originals can I trash all that paper? thanks

I contacted the department of insurance for the state of California posing this exact question. As long as the scanned copy is legible you do not need to keep the paper. However records do need to be kept for 5yrs scanned copies are fine. The department of insurance sent me a copy of the regulation Barclays California Code of Regulations page 526.26 Article 7 Production Agency Records Hope this helps Linda J Tajik Account Executive etfile, an Apres Systems Company Integrated Electronic Document Management Solutions One Research Drive, Suite 202B Westboro, MA 01581 Phone: 888.672.7737 x233 Phone: 949.487.2354 Mobile: 949.291-3878 Fax: 508.475.0206 Email: ltajik@etfile.com Web: www.etfile.com

Hello, The agency I work for is virtually paperless; we scan and attached all documents. Although the law requires we keep documents for only five years we retain for a minimum of ten. I'm not sure where your office is located but we are in California and because of all the construction defect claims in our state, we often have to refer back to policies & certificates within those ten years to meet the California statute of limitations. Also, in order to protect our customers privacy and due to the various laws in place (see below), we hire an outside service to shred all documents rather than "trash" the paper… HIPAA – Heath Insurance Portability & Accountability Act GLBA – Gramm Leach Bliley Act - also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act Privacy Act of 1974 Privacy Act of 1974 Economic Espionage Act of 1996 FERPA - Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act Hope this helps. Mel _________________________________ Melissa M. Vance, Manager – Risk Placement Division Fallgatter Rhodes Insurance Services, Inc.

Melissa: I wanted to say Thank You for sharing this information! I am so thrilled to see another "seasoned" professional, willing to assist someone just getting going! I so believe that we need to do this in order to maintain quality within the insurance industry. Way To Go! Carrie M. Allen, ARM Arrowhead General Insurance Agency, Inc. - CA License #0699809 Marketing Representative/Commercial Division 701 B Street, Suite 2100 | San Diego, CA 92101 phone - 800.903.5489 x8439 or 619.881.8439 fax - 800.566.7650 GREAT NEWS! Policy documents issued June 4th, 2007 going forward can be viewed, printed or saved to your Agency Management System by logging into www.ArrowheadAgents.com. Documents are available the next business day after issuance. You asked-We Listened!

thanks for the info.. very helpful

We went paperless as an Agency June of 2003 and it's one of the best decisions I feel we ever made. We have progressively, over time been scanning in all our previous files and are nearing the end of the tunnel. As long as you religiously back-up, and I mean BACK-UP your data, you can easily re-create your files and never have to face the dreaded thought of losing everything in a catastrophe. You may want to look at a Managment System as well, because they do much more than archive files. They integrate all your notes, all you diaries and permanently save and time-stamp everything for you. In our situation, the software we chose was a Company called Xanatek who's software (IMS) is specifically tailored for Insurance Agencies. They also have tremendous technical support people that are always available to trouble-shoot your problems remotely if you opt to take that option as well. If you want to look into this product, here is their contact information: Corporate Headquarters P.O. Box 160 Granger, IN 46530 USA Web site: www.Xanatek.com Hours of Operation Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM (EST) Sales Office Phone: 574.287.9938 Fax: 574.287.9958 Toll Free: 800.875.6033 (Canada & U.S.) When you take advantage of technology you will always stay ahead of the game. Good luck!!! Robert J. Lafaro, CIC, LUTCF Mantsch-Lafaro Ins Agency

We went paperless as an Agency June of 2003 and it's one of the best decisions I feel we ever made. We have progressively, over time been scanning in all our previous files and are nearing the end of the tunnel. As long as you religiously back-up, and I mean BACK-UP your data, you can easily re-create your files and never have to face the dreaded thought of losing everything in a catastrophe. You may want to look at a Managment System as well, because they do much more than archive files. They integrate all your notes, all you diaries and permanently save and time-stamp everything for you. In our situation, the software we chose was a Company called Xanatek who's software (IMS) is specifically tailored for Insurance Agencies. They also have tremendous technical support people that are always available to trouble-shoot your problems remotely if you opt to take that option as well. If you want to look into this product, here is their contact information: Corporate Headquarters P.O. Box 160 Granger, IN 46530 USA Web site: www.Xanatek.com Hours of Operation Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM (EST) Sales Office Phone: 574.287.9938 Fax: 574.287.9958 Toll Free: 800.875.6033 (Canada & U.S.) When you take advantage of technology you will always stay ahead of the game. Good luck!!! Robert J. Lafaro, CIC, LUTCF Mantsch-Lafaro Ins Agency

Thanks Robert for your information about this software-we going to have installation on This Thursday. Thanks again we already loved it

paper-"less" is for sure the way to go. We are using AMS for windows as the mgmnt system component of the paper-less model ... -critical to have a mgmnt system for paper-less concept. We standardized on Adobe PDF as the file archive format. More flexibility and useability over .tiff based and .jpg or other proprietary file formats. PDF is no longer just the de-facto file archive standard - its pretty much THE file archive format "standard". We married the full version of Adobe Acrobat [full version] and Scansofts' Paperport software and it pretty much just rocks! Good luck in your paper-less endeavors - sadly I dont us ever getting truly paperless. Also the comments about archive methodology for 10 years - is spot on. Statute of limitations for many things is 10 years - and you may be required to produce policy language and certificates you've issued that far back. If you've ever gone thru a file recreation as part of an E&O lawsuit - as I have ... you'll keep it 10 yrs - no exceptions. All the best, Steve Aylor Insurance Solutions