What should I do with old records I inherited that have no retention schedule?

Inheriting a pile of records with no retention schedule is common, and it is solvable. The worst response is to do nothing, because unmanaged records create legal, privacy, and storage risk. The second-worst response is to delete in a panic. Take a measured, defensible path instead.

Do not destroy anything yet

Until you understand what you have, treat the collection as if every item may need to be kept. If any litigation, audit, investigation, or public-records request could touch these materials, a legal hold applies and destruction must stop entirely. When in doubt, preserve and ask.

Inventory what you have

You cannot manage what you have not described. Walk through the records and capture, at a high level:

• What they are (record types, formats, and rough date ranges)
• Who created them and which function or program they support
• Volume and where they live (boxes, drives, shared folders, email)
• Any obvious sensitivity, such as personal, financial, or confidential data

A simple spreadsheet is enough to start.

Appraise value and find the right schedule

Group the inventory into categories tied to business activities. For each category, ask what value the records still hold: operational, legal, fiscal, or historical. Then look for a schedule that already covers them. Many records fall under existing organization-wide schedules, government general schedules, or statute- and regulation-driven retention requirements for areas like tax, employment, and safety. Inherited records rarely need a brand-new schedule built from scratch.

Apply a schedule and document your decisions

Map each category to a retention period and a disposition (keep permanently, transfer to an archive, or destroy after a set time). Get sign-off from records, legal, and the relevant business owner. Document the rationale so the outcome is repeatable and defensible.

Then act on the backlog

Only after categories are scheduled and approved should you dispose of anything. Destroy eligible records consistently per the schedule, log what was destroyed, and migrate the rest into your normal recordkeeping system so they are not orphaned again.

This inventory-appraise-schedule-dispose cycle is the foundation of sound records management and applies to any backlog, regardless of age or format. For more groundwork, see the fundamentals topic hub.