Effective 28 Aug 2017

326.325. Work product, property of licensee — consent of client necessary for disclosure. — 1. Subject to the provisions of section 326.322, all statements, records, schedules, working papers and memoranda made by a licensee or a partner, shareholder, officer, director, member, manager or employee of a licensee, incident to, or in the course of, rendering services to a client while a licensee, except the reports submitted by the licensee to the client and except for records that are part of the client's records, shall be and remain the property of the licensee in the absence of an express agreement between the licensee and the client to the contrary. No statement, record, schedule, working paper or memorandum shall be sold, transferred or bequeathed without the consent of the client or the client's personal representative or assignee to anyone other than one or more surviving partners, stockholders, members or new partners, new stockholders or new members of the licensee, or any combined or merged firm or successor in interest to the licensee. Nothing in this section should be construed as prohibiting any temporary transfer of workpapers or other material necessary in the course of carrying out peer reviews or as otherwise interfering with the disclosure of information pursuant to section 326.322.

2. A licensee shall furnish to a client or former client, upon request and reasonable notice:

(1) A copy of the licensee's working papers to the extent that the working papers include records that would ordinarily constitute part of the client's records and are not otherwise available to the client; and

(2) Any accounting or other records belonging to, or obtained from or on behalf of, the client that the licensee removed from the client's premises or received for the client's account. The licensee may make and retain copies of such documents of the client when they form the basis for work done by the licensee.

3. Nothing in this section shall require a licensee to keep any paperwork beyond the period prescribed in any other applicable statute, nor shall it prohibit a licensee from charging a reasonable fee for furnishing the requested materials.

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(L. 2001 H.B. 567, A.L. 2017 S.B. 395)