Merrill Lynch Reviews 146

Had my whole investment in Wal-Mart stock and was talked in to a fund that lost over $150K within months by: Stephen P Baker,
CFP®, CKP® Senior Vice President, Senior Consultant. No help with no communication from this advisor. When I called and ask for help and explanation, Mr. Baker said, "Well I told you could lose money"(with no advise on what to do). Understand this, just because you lose money, it doesn't mean they lose money. They make money and ARE PAID by recommending stocks and funds with a commission. They don't care about YOU OR YOUR MONEY, JUST THEIR'S!! I would rate, Stephen Baker, with a negative rating, if possible. Go to Vanguard for great advise and safer investment plans!
*Date is of post, not year event happened,

I called at least 3 times to ask my 401k questions. Each representative gave me different answers. Terrible!!!!

Worse website, always errors, and as lately my cash transfer failed and it has been a month and several calls and they have not solved the issue

I and my wife have had our IRAs for well over 30 years and now that we both are retired wanted to take our fixed monthly withdraws and some be invested in a safe CD format to gain some money, the associate that we worked with, she totally screwed it up as after one year she had it all in a long term CD and we could not withdraw any unless we paid the penalty, in fact she wanted us to transfer my 401K to ML as well, Thank God my wife stopped me from doing this otherwise they would screw that one up too, recently I called to get help and ensure money is flowing every month, they kept transferring me to different person as no one wanted to help for a simple inquiry , who is a head and leader of Merrill Lynch that does not see how bad his team operates, DO THEY CARE or only want bottom line and unethically get people's money there, very very disappointed retiree, i have discouraged many of my family members to do business and be aware of ML.

Merrill is forcing a rollover. So I requested a rollover. They then denied my request for a rollover to Fidelity. No reason was given they just state I have to call them for details... Holding on the phone for 3hrs and 18mins so far.

I entrusted Merrill Lynch with 1.4 million in 2020. four years later my balance was 1.5 million. first three years they tried to dazzle me with lots of data and charts of how well I was doing but by fourth year when I put them on notice, my zoom meeting with Merrill guy kept his head down in shame as I said where are the gains you keep talking about. Fired them and transferred to a small hungry investment group that made me more money in three months than Merrill did in four years. DO NOT INVEST WITH MERRILL LYNCH !!

Horrible Experience with Merrill Lynch – Opening a spousal beneficiary IRA

I had the absolute displeasure of dealing with Merrill Lynch for what should have been a simple process of rolling over a deceased person’s IRA into a new one and then closing it. Merrill Lynch refuses to release the funds. To say it is a nightmare is an understatement.

From the start, everything was unnecessarily complicated. The paperwork was endless. Despite multiple phone calls and hours spent trying to clarify the steps, their customer service was both unhelpful and uninformed. Every representative I spoke to seemed to have a different version of what needed to be done. I was constantly bounced around departments, put on hold for absurd amounts of time, and left feeling that Merrill is just stonewalling.

The process of opening the IRA to roll over the deceased person’s funds was dragged out for months and is still a work in progress. Merrill Lynch goes out of their way to make everything more difficult, from requiring multiple signatures on multiple forms, and then disapproving submitted forms over missing dates in the signature.

Dealing with the loss of a loved one is hard enough without the added stress of this incompetent brokerage. The Merrill Lynch Life Services department is actively blocking my every attempt to transfer the deceased account to the spousal beneficiary. The whole experience left me feeling frustrated, emotionally drained, and thoroughly disrespected. I would never recommend Merrill Lynch to anyone who has to manage such sensitive matters. Save yourself the headache and take your business elsewhere.

Truely Incompetent !
I did a transaction on 5th March. Asked for and paid for an overnight delivery of a cheque (yes those things still exist and ML did not seem prepared to send BACS/SWIFT or IBAN) ... DHL was about to deliver the cheque but it was returned to the sender ??? No idea why... ML had not provided enough details beyond tracking number so DHL could not explain. DHL notes say it was returned at the request of the sender and I had to speak with the sender.
Called up ML - spoke to three different people - one wanted to know why I'd been transferred to them - only after the call had been dropped first time.
ML could not say why they'd asked for it to be returned. ML could investigate why the cheque was not delivered as paid for... but that would take several business days... and they could reissue the cheque but then the same thing might happen...
Why no international funds transfer as in most of the rest of the world ? Why so incompetent ? Hard to say... had to refer to a manager (4th person) ... those are in short supply... finally spoke to a manager 55 minutes into the call the manager undertook to deal with it...

I was defrauded by Ethan Ladd, CFP at Kavanagh Hurst and Associates wealth Management of 27 Main St Andover Mass. Bernard Kavanagh also betrayed his Fiduciary responsibility to me in the Forgery and Fraud scheme. James M Connors of Merrill Lynch 100 Federal St Boston Mass has also betrayed his Fiduciary responsibilities to me in this same Fraud Scheme. Ethan Ladd forged signatures and initials digitally on Subscription Agreements that I never saw and purchased extremely risky non publicly traded REITs with my money in my name. These Reits have extremely high commission rates paid to the broker that sells them. Ethan Ladd was self dealing and unjustly enriching himself in violation of Security Exchange Regulations and rules.These Reits have Gated my funds and Starwood Reit is a completely worthless financial instrument.These Fraudsters stole about $47,000 of my life savings ,initially and I have clawed back about $15,000 so far. I have filed complaints with the SEC, CFP Board of Standards, Finra, and several other Regulatory Agencys. Ethan Ladd, James Connors, Bernard Kavanagh, and also Lawrence Hurst are nothing more than criminals and I would never let any of them anywhere near my money. It was a huge mistake to trust Merrill Lynch and Kavanagh Hurst and Associates.

I have an Individual Investment Account. 3 years ago, Merrill Lynch withdrew all money from my Benefits Online account. No letter, no warning. The balance was zeroed out. I was frantic that I got defrauded by someone.

I rang - from Europe where I live, 8 hrs ahead time difference. I spent 2 hrs being transfered from pillar to post or listening to their automated voice service before I was forced to open another account to get my vanishing money back. No warning of any charges.

Months later, I found I was charged an annual fee (65 USD). Also, no options to trade online anymore, or wire money out. No SMS notifications or authorisation codes available to my non-US mobile number either. To do anything, I had to ring USA number, from overseas, at my night hours. I have no idea what I was paying the annual fee for.

Eventually I decided to sell the stock and wire money back to Europe. It took several calls, several hours, and several people to talk to. First money transfer ordered. All data correct. Money gone out of my account on the following day. Transfer fee (30 USD) taken of my account, too. I got wire notification. Money was due to reach the destination 3 days later as per the transfer confirmation.

A week later, money still had not arrived at its destination. It was returned to my Merrill acocunt, short of 32 USD. No notification, no charge showing to explain the shortage of the refund. I only realised when I looked at my monthly statement.

I rang again, spent 1 hr trying to get through the automatic voice service. Eventually, got through. A consultant was unable to explain why the transfer was returned. All data was correct. Nothing missing.

We tried another destination account. At the end of the proces, I was told I cannot have USD wired outside of the US. Merrill insisted on currency conversion, additional fees, and not the currency I wanted. Apparently, this is due to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Act that prevent international transfers in USD and insists on currency conversion, at least so I was told.

Why I was not told that a week earlier. I would have saved 30 USD for wire transfer that was never meant to be successful, and additional 32 USD fee for it to be returned. The consultant was guessing this was returned due to USD currency being wired out.

I am losing my will to live, dealing with Merrill Lynch costs me my health, makes me cry, not to mention exhausted having to spend hours on Skype with Merrill Lynch after my working day instead of relax and rest. Had it not been for Skype, the phone calls would also cost me a fortune.

I had an old account of about 50.00. They told me the check was in the mail and to wait 7-10 business days. I called February 24th and they said 7-14 days. I called there at 8am today Thursday February 27th and first the guy transferred me to another team member. These people never introduced themselves on the other team. I waited 40 minutes as the guy supposedly stopped a check then proceed to tell me since their fee is 75.00 there really was never a check. A bunch of bullshit and I was never told about the fee and only that the check was coming. They are liars and thieves. Had terrible time closing my husbands account with them as I had to notary 4 times at the branch at Somerville. It was terrible. Do not do business with them as they are crooks and cannot say a straight thing.

Recently tried to open a Merrill Edge SDI account. Online application process went well. Very straightforward. Then I received an email saying they needed to clarify some information provided, this was expected. They requested I send them copies of my SSN card, DL and proof of address with utility bill. I fully understand the requirements of AML/CIP regulations and the need to confirm one’s identity. That said I also understand the implications of having copies of my identity docs being kept by a third party and having their systems hacked. U.S. regulations DO NOT require that copies of identity docs be acquired and kept by financial institutions. Just that the be presented and reviewed for confirmation. Knowing this I requested that I could go into a branch to have the docs confirmed. Merrill’s response was NOT TO RESPOND. It’s unfortunate when institutions like Bank of America/Merrill get to the point where they’ve forgotten how to deliver on good customer service. I know I’m just a grain of sand on the beach to Merrill but they should try to do better.

Their corporate infrastructure allows local agents and offices to conduct themselves in an unprofessional and unethical manner.

Then once those practices are brought to light, they will lie and do anything needed to hide their deceptive practices.

All then to be backed up by their corporate that has it all setup to work this way in the first place.

Take your business ANYWHERE but Merrill Lynch! Lesson learned firsthand.

I contacted you to update my personal information since everytime I went to do it online , you kept on trying to upsell me on fee based products. I manage my own Portfolio. You then put a lock on my account, and force me to contact you.
I contacted you to update my information, and spoke with a customer service representative.
I then proceeded to notify your customer service agent that I will be processing a rollover request from Merrill Lynch, Bank of America to a new IRS.

Lo and behold, when I went ahead to do that via direct transfer, roll over, you all sold my portfolio, cut a check and marked it as an early distribution with Federal tax withholding, subject to early distribution penalty.

Just FYI, I know exactly what I was doing, because I'm not financially illiterate, and I understand the tax consequence since I work in Tax!

I will be submitting my complaint to consumer affairs, BBB, and any other public facing source available.

Additionally, since you sold my asset and marked as a distribution subject to early withdrawal penalties, I'm also going to be contacting CFPB and my attorney in for Negligence!

If the institution processes the transaction without proper consent, it may fall under "negligent banking practices" or even "fraudulent withdrawal." If this happens, the account holder may have legal grounds to dispute the transaction under Regulation E (for electronic transactions) or Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Article 4 (for checks).

My daughter has money that was in a custodial account until she was 21. She’s now 23 and we’ve been trying to get her money out for 9 months. Numerous phone calls, HOURS on hold and we still don’t have her money. They sent checks to the wrong addresses (none related to my daughter) THREE different times. They accidentally closed her account. They finally got it open and then they couldn’t/wouldn’t wire the money to her. We’ve filed an official complaint but the incompetence is unreal. 9 months and this still isn’t resolved. Would NEVER use them again.

My mother passed away and her 401k was left to me as the sole beneficiary. It took me 5, 1 hour!!!- 45 min phone calls to get the money transferred to my account. Then another 3 lengthy phone calls to try and get the money transferred via various methods, which were for some reason denied. I had to re-explain my situation with every phone call, reliving my mother’s death because they will not give you a direct number to a member of staff who could potentially handle your case. Finally I realized my financial advisor from another account may be able to help me, and 2 e-signature forms and 3 days later I had easy access to her money. The staff at Merrill Lynch were albeit polite, however extremely incompetent and disorganized. This was a genuinely an agonizing experience. Absolutely do not use this company.

My mother died over 2 years ago. I still have not received my share of the funds from that account. Numerous phone calls and written correspondence. Every time there is a different excuse. They are incredibly dishonest.

Merrill Lynch is the most incompetent financial services institution I have ever dealt with. I am an executor for my mother's estate. It's been 5 months since her passing and her estate still has not been settled despite the existence of clear beneficiary designations. They cannot provide any explanation as to why the funds have not been distributed nor when they will be. 3 other financial institutions completed all disbursements Within 1 month.

I placed an online Wire Request at 1pm on a weekday. The wire didn't actually get sent until the following business day (Merrill made an error). I called and they told me they would credit me back the $24.95 fee, and call me back with an explanation of why this happened. It's now 2 weeks later, and several calls from ME to THEM, and they still haven't taken ANY action. This place is a mess. I'm liquidating my account ($300k+).

I have a 401K account with Merrill Lynch and they have horrible customer service, lock my online account for no reason and when I asked my daughter to call the customer service to unlock the account, they hanged on my daughter because they said she can't be my representative, so rude and does not care about customer at all