Settings — Retention Policy

The Settings ▸ Retention Policy page sets one org-wide value: how long trust records are kept after a matter closes before they become eligible for purge.

The single most important thing about this page: Athenty never auto-purges. Choosing a retention window does not schedule a deletion. It records the window your regulator requires, and it decides when a record starts appearing in the purge-eligibility queue — where a human still has to ask for the purge and a second human still has to approve it.

Policy options

Policy	Window	Notes
6 years	6 years from matter close	The shortest window Athenty offers
7 years	7 years from matter close	A common middle ground
10 years	10 years from matter close	The default — the most conservative fixed window
Permanent hold	Never expires	Trust records never become purge-eligible

The default is 10 years, chosen so a new organization starts at the most conservative fixed option rather than the shortest one.

Changing the policy affects future eligibility. Records that are already eligible stay eligible until they are purged or the policy is set to permanent hold.

Retention minimums vary — verify yours

Athenty does not decide how long you must keep trust records, and the options above are not derived from any one regulator’s rule. Retention periods differ by jurisdiction, and some regulators distinguish between categories of record with different minimums. Confirm the retention minimum that applies to you against the governing rule for your jurisdiction and your regulator, and set the policy at or above it. The Sources & authorities table links the official text for every Canadian province and territory.

If your obligation falls between two options, pick the longer one. Retaining a record longer than required is a policy choice; destroying one earlier than required is a compliance failure.

What the policy actually does

The retention window is an input, not a scheduler. Three things follow from it, and nothing else does:

1. A reminder. The page states, in one place, the window your firm has committed to — so the answer to “how long do we keep these?” is not folklore.
2. Purge eligibility. A record becomes eligible once the window has elapsed since the matter closed. Eligible records are listed on the purge-eligibility surface with a Request purge button. Listing is informational; nothing happens on its own.
3. A gate on the purge utility. A record that is not eligible cannot be purged at all. The policy is what makes a record reachable by the two-admin workflow in the first place.

There is no nightly job that deletes trust records when a window expires. Expiry moves a record into a queue; it does not remove anything.

Every purge takes two distinct admins

Purging is deliberately a two-person operation:

1. Admin A opens an eligible record and clicks Request purge.
2. The request lands in the pending-requests queue.
3. Admin B — a different admin — approves or declines it.
4. Only on approval is the record purged. The audit trail captures the requester and the approver separately.

The same-admin guard is enforced on the server, not just hidden in the UI: approving your own request is refused. One admin acting alone can never destroy a trust record, regardless of role.

Declining closes the request with a reason and leaves the record in the eligibility queue.

How retention layers with document holds

Retention and document holds are two independent controls, and the hold always wins.

Record state	Retention window elapsed	Document hold active	Purge-eligible?
Open matter	No	No	No
Closed, inside window	No	No	No
Closed, window elapsed	Yes	No	Yes — enters the queue
Closed, window elapsed	Yes	Yes	No — the hold suppresses eligibility
Any state	Either	Yes	No

A document hold prevents a matter from being purged for as long as the hold is active. It overrides both the retention policy and the manual two-admin purge workflow — a held matter does not become eligible no matter how long ago it closed.

Releasing a hold restores normal behaviour. A record whose retention window elapsed while it was held is not purged retroactively on release; it simply enters the eligibility queue from that point, where it still needs the two-admin workflow like everything else.

Set hold defaults and hold-release authority in Settings ▸ Matters ▸ Document Hold.

Permissions and scope

Role	View	Change policy	Request purge	Approve purge
Owner	✓	✓	✓	✓
Admin	✓	✓	✓	✓ (must differ from the requester)
Member	✗	✗	✗	✗
Viewer	✗	✗	✗	✗

The policy is tenant-wide — there is no per-matter retention override. Per-matter divergence is expressed with a document hold instead.

Audit logging

Action	Event
Policy change	org.trust_retention_updated (with the before/after diff)
Purge requested	trust.purge_requested (with requester ID)
Purge approved	trust.purge_approved (with both requester and approver IDs)
Purge declined	trust.purge_declined (with decliner ID + reason)

Every one of these surfaces in Settings ▸ Audit Log. A retention policy change is a high-impact compliance event — it is worth reviewing deliberately, not just leaving in the log.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Most likely cause	Fix
A closed matter never becomes eligible	A document hold is active on it	Check the matter’s hold status; release the hold if it no longer applies
Shortening the window didn’t purge anything	Expected — the policy never deletes	Shortening only widens eligibility; use the two-admin workflow to purge
Cannot approve a purge	You are the admin who requested it	A different admin must approve
Record still listed as eligible after purge	Stale view	Refresh the surface
Permanent hold reverts after save	The save failed	Re-save and read the error toast
Unsure which window is required	Retention minimums are jurisdiction-specific	See Trust accounting standards and confirm with your regulator

Related pages

• Settings ▸ Trust Accounting — trust accounts, reconciliations, and the purge queues
• Trust accounting standards — the governing retention rule per jurisdiction
• Settings ▸ Matters ▸ Document Hold — holds that suppress purge eligibility
• Settings ▸ Regulator Reports — the trust reports a regulator asks for
• Settings ▸ Audit Log — retention and purge events
• Matters — closing a matter starts the retention clock