When “records available from 2022 forward” isn’t the whole story.
An attorney subpoenaed Empower for historical retirement records going back several years. Empower responded that records were available from April 2022 forward only. The attorney assumed the older data was gone.
That assumption can be a mistake.
When Prudential’s retirement business moved to Empower in 2022, many plans went through a platform transition. If the account came over from the Prudential side, older records may not appear in the current Empower platform, even though they still exist in archived legacy systems.
The problem
A standard subpoena or records request often reaches only the current platform.
So if the plan migrated from Prudential, the response may show records from the conversion date forward and leave out the earlier history. The result is a response that looks complete on its face, but may be missing years of older data.
The fix
Your demand has to make clear that you are not limiting the search to the current Empower platform.
Try language like this:
“This demand specifically encompasses any pre-conversion and legacy records maintained in archived systems associated with the former Prudential retirement business, including records not visible through the current Empower platform.”
That one sentence makes it harder for the response team to stop at 2022 and treat the search as complete.
The takeaway
If you’re working with an Empower account and the records stop at 2022, do not automatically assume the older data is gone.
It may mean the search never reached the legacy source.
And that is exactly where a lot of attorneys lose time. They accept the first response, move on, and never realize the older records may still be there.
I cover provider-specific subpoena language for Empower, Fidelity, Vanguard, TIAA, and others in my Breaking the Seven-Year Wall session. Reach out if you’d like to schedule a private session for your firm!