Merrill Lynch
Reviews and Complaints

I choose this wayto solve my issue because I have no other way to try to solve my problem.
Till 2012 I was working for HP and in 2014 I will be in retirement.
During HP periode I receiced and account with some money in this one. Due to retirrement, I lose my HP address bernard. [protected]@hp.com, my login/password on merrill web site
my account number is 6DL-44383 my new email is bernard. [protected]@gmail.com
my postal address is
bernard barrilliot
47 rue theophile gauthier
leuville sur orge 91310
france

I applied for a hardship 12/12/2017 to pay for my mother's cremation. Her remains have been sitting in the funeral home since 12/11/2017. When consumers apply for hardship withdrawls there are deadlines, urgency and despair surrounding the circumstances like burial, eviction, ect... People should not have to wait weeks for this process and direct deposit should be an option. This is ridiculous to put people through this in there time of need. If I could close my relationship with Merrill lynch I would in a heartbeat. As I still haven't received my check that I have to wait to come in the mail and I still don't have my mother remains. This is adding stress to me while I am still grieving my mother passing.

I just spent 25 minutes and 3 transfers on the phone with people who couldn't help me transfer out my 5LB-60167 IRA account. Incredible!

This wasn't my first attempt. Over the years I've tried to move this small account out and in the meantime ML has decremented it from just under $5k to $3.5k by charging your service fees.

Thankfully I thought to call my Schwab. They knew what to do to transfer this account.

No thanks to ML.

FYI, when I talk with friends about our brokers, I always bad mouth ML. You've been nothing but trouble over the years. I did transfer out a pension account in the past as well.

I have made numerous contacts asking why ML has 2 shares of cableas stock in an account & have gained no accurate information. Each person I have talked to has given me a different answer. Earlier this year I received a bill for $15.00 for low balance. When I called to inquire I was told that was an annual fee but rep would do some checking to get answers on why ML had these shares & get back to me. That never happened. In the meantime I sent in a check for $15.00. Then this week I again received another low balance fee request. I called & was told the fee is charged quarterly but if I got hold of compu share that holds my payroll deducted stock & got a couple of numbers I could call ML back & these 2 shares would be transferred for no charge. I got my numbers & called back to talk to rep. 2. She was having trouble doing transaction. She said she'd work on it & get back to me which she did; however, she told me she couldn't do it because the latest $15.00 fee was on my account. She said she'd get that taken off & complete the transaction. I asked how I'd know if shares were transferred & she said she'd call me back by end of today. True to her word, she called this AM & left message for me to call back. I called back & got a different rep & was told I needed to send them $25.00 so they could transfer my shares. I then asked for a supervisor & after a lengthy wait got an arrogant guy that insisted that I had 2 choices: pay the $25 fee or have them sell the stock & they would send proceeds but the $15.00 low balance fee would have to be paid. There was NOTHING else he could do. Finally after lengthy talking he said he'd waive the $15.00 fee but couldn't until they had received the $25.00. Finally I asked if he had a supervisor & his a sewer was, I do but he doesn't take calls & I've been here long enough that I don't need to consult him. In 2 days I've talked with 5 people (plus the one when first $15.00 charge was assessed) & each time I have gotten different answers. Basically the way I see this company's operation is the just keep giving whatever they think sounds good & tack on more charges. I still don't know how those 2 shares are in a ML account or where they came from but the company (ML) seems to want the value of them & isn't interested in the fact that each reps information has been different (a total of 6 people) to me. After all of the lame excuses, time spent on the phone, & frustration I KNOW I won't ever do business with Merrill Lynch & will strongly discourage anyone else from doing business at ML. I AM 1 VERY, VERY UNHAPPY CUSTOMER!

On April 2017 I have purchased 58 shares of the Dow Chemical co thru Merril Lynch. On May 15th I entered the same website I bought these shares and tried to sell them. The link keeps me saying "No tax form on file" and I can't sell my shares! I have called several time to try to solve th issue, no one can help with that, I have resubmited the "file" like 10 times already and nothing happesns! I still can not sell MY shares!
I am very disapointed with the customer service of Merrill Lynch not giving a good response to a customer!
Hope someday I will be able to sell my shares

Merrill Lynch in Minocqua, WI didn't follow my mother's trust starting in 2011. I was a co-trustee on my Mom's trust when she was determined to be incapacitated in May 2011. The trust became irrevocable. Three attorneys determined that I was a co-trustee on the trust. I stopped getting monthly financial statements from Merrill Lynch. I found out my sister wrote $112, 000 in checks to her children and other nieces and nephews but not mine on August, 2014. As co-trustee I should have been notified when my sister attempted this transaction and given the 50% decision-making power about this transaction. I was not notified. I had to get attorneys involved to get financial information which I finally did. I had to have forensic accounting done on the trust for the five years I didn't receive statements. When asked, the person in charge of the trust management said I would have to go through my sister?! My sisters ran my Mom's trust down to 2 1/2 months of liquid assets in her trust left to pay for her care when she passed away. I changed attorneys when my attorney canceled a meeting in front of a judge and I contacted the DA's office. I had to go through mediation and lots more attorney fees to get this situation settled. None of this would have occurred if Merrill Lynch had followed the trust. I made a complaint to Merrill Lynch to their compliance people after my Mom passed away. They investigated and have tried to make this mistake my fault! First they tried to say I wasn't a co-trustee. I countered with proof from three attorneys saying I was a co-trustee and their agent saying I was a co-trustee in e-mails. Then they said I hadn't turned in the letter of incapacity which I have e-mail documentation that I offered this letter and that Merrill Lynch didn't respond to this. They also did not give me the trust client forms to fill out until they noticed their error in November 2014. How is a consumer supposed to know what forms they need completed? The agent at Merrill Lynch made this mistake. They noticed their error after I had an attorney contact them in 2014. All I am asking for are my legal fees and forensic accounting fees that I wouldn't have had to pay if Merrill Lynch had done their job. It was very obvious at my Mom's memorial that the Merrill Lynch agent was guilty when he fell all over himself trying to please me. I have dealt with 3 compliance officers. "Compliance" means following the rules/laws. All they have done is try to make their obvious fault somehow my fault not to follow the law like they should have. They have error and omission insurance to take care of such glaring mistakes. I am just a consumer making a complaint. My attorney said that trying a lawsuit against a large company like Merrill Lynch would be dumping money down the drain. My Mom's trust was a useless document. I feel that Merrill Lynch should do the right thing and admit their many errors and make this right by covering the legal and accounting fees I had to incur due to their errors.

My husband and I had a large amount of 401k money to invest. We went to the local Merrill Lynch. The adviser set up accounts and we transferred monies into them. After 5+ years, we started to question the fact that the accounts had barely appreciated at all. We finally closed our accounts and are now with another company. We are watching this adviser very closely and will move again should we see that the same thing is happening again. For example, when we closed the accounts with Merrill Lynch, I did some analysis and found that 77% of the investments, if sold, would be at a loss. So we had been stuck in terrible investments since 2015 with no earnings and no appreciation in value to be able to sell. I am still the owner of some of these loser funds - can't sell because of the huge loss I would have to realize. This was quite an eye opener and not acceptable. What was he thinking of the make such bad investments?

My dad, now deceased, had his retirement accounts with Merrill Lynch. When he passed away in 2001, my mom received monthly benefits from his accounts. After 9/11, the accounts went down dramatically. My mother was scared of losing everything in those accounts, so she cashed them out - against the advice of the Merrill Lynch agent. The agent got mad and screamed at her. Then, when mom received the cash... she called the office to talk to the agent about something. The receptionist looked up her accounts and said "they were all cashed out except for another account or more... wait a moment, please"... and then denied saying it. I am afraid that they kept one or more accounts active for the agent to continue making money on. Plus, I have a special needs little sister who lives with my mom - and they both live with me - and we could have re-invested that money to make sure mom had money now. Is it too late to file a complaint? Or even a law suit? That agent is working for a different company now but I have her information.

My mom had stocks with this company for years. When she passed away in 2003, my sister got half and I got the other. We stayed with my mom's advisor. We became friends with our advisor and trusted her. Recently when I asked to sell some stock, my advisor would question me on why I needed the money? Was it a emergency? Then lecture about, you know, if you take that money it's gone forever UNLESS you put it back. Really? I thought it was my money. I don't need to be lectured or told what to do. I got fed up and found a new financial company to handle my stocks. I also had a checking account with Merrill Lynch. This advisor was also telling my sister about my finances. Not good. So on a late Wednesday afternoon I sign the paperwork for my stocks to be transfered. Early Thursday morning my ex-advisor calls me and tells me that she got the paperwork and that I can't write checks or use my visa card anymore. My checking account is closed. I need to find a bank, get a new account, call the VA and State about my direct deposit, call my creditor's that get auto-pay and let them know about my new account. Nice. Way to crap on someone. Then I ask about my VA disability that's being deposited at midnight. She said she'd get back to me. So off I go with only $60.00 to open a account, because I have NO access to my money.
After that, I spent all morning into the afternoon calling my creditors. Later that day I get a email from her stating that my account would stay open for 30 days of until 5/6 for any money that floats in. So i'm thinking i'll have money for my bills. No! Early on Friday, this advisor has her secretary call me to tell me that they rejected my VA check. That's so low and this so called friend, advisor screwed me and couldn't tell me herself! I went 2 weeks with no money. I had to call all my creditors again and explain the situation. What a freaking nightmare. Then when my stocks get transfered to my new financial place, we go through them and see that she had most of my money in stocks that where doing terrible and one of them I had lost $14, 000.00 in 2 months! What the hell? What are you getting paid for? Did I say that i'm a dialed Vet, on a fixed income and she's been playing Russian Roulette with my money? Bad, bad business. She should be fired and merrill lynch should pay my $14, 000.00 back. Yah. Right. Don't invest with them. They're untrustworthy. If you want any proof of any of this, I have all the emails and my stock record, where it shows the money that I lost! I should of had a better balanced profolio and with that amount of money lost in 2 months, she should have had me come in and change things up. Glad I left.

I am a former Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor who is trying to do a good deed. Please be careful if you are planning to bring assets to this firm! All of the bad things you may have heard about Bank of America/Merrill Lynch are true. They are the dirtiest people in the world. Their Advisors are encouraged to put their clients' money into investments that charge the highest fees, and if an Advisor has been there less than three years he/she will probably lose their job if they don't comply. Those greedy SOB's view their clients as naïve, income generating "machines" and their Advisors are trained to sell portfolios that maximize the fees they are able to charge.

Over the past two years I've been putting my clients into portfolios of carefully selected, high quality blue-chip stocks and earning them an average of 28% annually. I thought that was great, and all of my clients were very pleased. But instead of being praised, I was told that I was doing a terrible job. I was instructed, with a wink and a nod, to be more "creative" and to specifically "sell more Unit Investment Trusts" (UIT's). A UIT is basically an investment vehicle that holds stocks selected by a fund manager and that charges the highest fees of any investment available today. I was also told that if I wouldn't sell investments that charge high fees I would be fired. Essentially, they were telling me to invest my clients in things that weren't necessarily the best for the client but were the best for me and Merrill Lynch. Gouge the clients to save my job. Rip off the clientele and stuff the bank's coffers. Play ball or you're fired.

All Financial Advisors are licensed by FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The most important thing in FINRA's eyes and what is stressed above all else is the concept of what I will loosely term "Fiduciary Duty". That is, that the Advisor manages the assets for the benefit of the client rather than for his or her own profit. That is nearly the exact opposite of the way Merrill Lynch does business, and as I related in my previous two paragraphs, they actively encouraged me to manage assets in a way that benefits me. Those faukers wanted me to break the law or they were going to fire me. Holy cow! In fact, FINRA was created to "police" Wall Street in order to protect investors from exactly this type of predatory behavior.

I have always strived to be a righteous, trustworthy and honest person, to be good to others and to do the honorable thing. I am not a rip-off artist. That said, I refused to change my successful investing strategy and start pushing high-fee investments. And, as promised, they fired me. I can't say that I'm sorry though. I am so happy to be away from those greedy devils you cannot imagine. I am now happily employed as a Financial Advisor at another top firm that gives me the leeway to do what I think is best for my clients.

I hope you take what you have just read to heart. Be smart. Invest your money anywhere but Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. Don't be the fool they want you to be.

Ever since ML was purchased by Bank of America, their service has gone down and they are continually finding creative ways to charge their customers or to place you a position that they can keep your own money and charge you to get it. back or move it. Besides raising their fees to buy and sell stock, mutual funds and EFT's they will now only transfer WHOLE shares so you will have to pay them more than the residual shares are worth to liquidate them! Outrageous and disgusting at the least. I transferred a mutual fund to my Fidelity account to save liquidation costs and now ML expects me to pay them $75 to liquidate .449 shares for a value of $12.67. This means I have to leave the partial shares there! Sneaky and underhanded thievery.

My father passed away 6 weeks ago, and I have gotten nothing but a run-a-round every since. Most of his money was in an IRA, and it takes an act of GOD himself for the family to recieve it. I am trying to pay the rest of his bills, but his accounts are frozen. And to add to your grief, every time you call you get a new person. You cannot speak to just one person. And every person tells you something differnet. Different paperwork, different details. So, I would seriously think twice about doing business with them!

Oh my! After googling Merrill Lynch I was not at all surprised by what was/is happening in this company. I recently received a notice in the mail that I was being assessed a $125.00 fee for an account that I have with Merrill. I called my contact that I deal with and trust. He had informed me that the fee was accurate. He also told me that Merrill employees have been given a directive to not give any special treatment to those investors whos accounts are below 250k. I asked the question "Am I am being forced to close my account?". He replied that upper management said "it was best if we parted company with you". Previously some fees were adjusted so that I didn't have to pay them. Discrimination? I think so! I also have dealt with Charles Schwab for years and have never had the issues that I have had with Merrill Lynch. I initially invested 250k with Merrill and have nothing to show for it. There is no wealth management. I read where someone said that "Merrill Lynch is reactive as opposed to being proactive." Couldn't be more true. When you complain, you receive a form letter saying that they take complaints very serious and will initiate an investigation. Smoke screen! I am thankful that my contact at merrill Lynch (Brent Stein) is a stand up guy and will not lie to benefit himself or Merrill Lynch. FINRA loves to hear of your complaints/concerns. Write them and they will take action. If anyone is interested in a class action suit, please email me. God Bless!

Merrill lynch sold my stock without my consent!

Do not ever invest with merrill lynch. They tried to charge bogus account maintenance fees for doing absolutely nothing.

Then they sell your stock without your consent and without even notifying you.

Then they offer to buy the stock back if you pay them a fee to buy the stock back.

They are criminals. Selling customers' stock without consent is the absolutely worst thing a brokerage can do.

Merrill lynch sucks - they sell your stock without your consent

I was laid off from my job and was informed that my 401k funds were going to remain in my Merrill Lynch retirement account until which time I could remove them, roll them over, or transfer them to another account. I do not know if Bank of America purchasing Merrill made a difference but somehow although I requested in writing to close the accout and cash out the account, half of the funds were rolled over into an IRRA. Fine. Until t he fees started kicking in. Hmm. I'm paying them for what? To hold my money? I can take the cash and put it in a savings account and MAKE money. So, I tried to call to hear my options with this account. It took FOREVER for them to locate my account and then they proceeded to sound confused when I asked about options. Really?! I called back today to inquire again although I was pretty sure I was going to close all accounts and reached the RUDEST rep on the phone. He too couldn't seem to locate my account. I gave him the account number, address, phone, spelled my name repeatedly and even offered the last four of social to verify. After trying to convince me that he wasn't trying to be difficult, he asked for my complete social. No. He asked again. I again said no, and offered additional info to verify my identity. He said without me giving my complete ss# over the phone he couldn't help me. What!? A company that prides itself on financial growth can't understand why I want to protect my indentity to some extent!. OMG. I ended the call extremely frustrated and anxious to cut all ties to this company. I guess I will try again tomorrow to find someone competent enough to help with this request. If you can avoid this company, in my opinion DO.

After 5 months of underwriting review, my refinancing loan was denied right before rate-lock expiration. Loan processor represented that the underwriter (an outsourced 3rd party company hired by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch mortgage) gave the following reasons: 1. Appraised value was too low ( in response, I submitted 4 additional sold comps to support the higher value to satisfy the LTV requirements) 2. W2 Income came from multiple sources thus only one employer income qualifies to calculate Income-to-Debt Ratio (in response, I showed 4 years of W2 income indicating the same income trends ) 3. Interest/dividend income cannot be included unless it is guaranteed for 3 years (in response, I showed 3 months of interest/dividends received and confirmation from brokerage firm that investments have a projected ROI, but no investment returns can be "guaranteed" for 3 years). Despite my efforts to provide all documentation, it appears that the bank has made a foregone decision not to honor the refinancing with the attractive interest rate offered 5 months ago. I believe the bank had to intention to close the deal and was finding excuses to deny. Is this legal, ethical?

Merrill Lynch sucks so bad it's impossible to fully describe
Years ago I had a brokerage with Merrill Lynch, and the broker was in Chicago very close to the action there. She was a Star, a broker with many large accounts. All she did for me was buy IPO's and flip them. Until one day she made a trade with my money without asking me first. She bought something I didn't want. When I asked her about that, she said, "You have to learn to trust me, I know what I'm doing". After taking a large loss on the trade, I closed my accounts with Merrill. I tried complaining to her boss and the company, and to the SEC, without any success at all. It wasn't worth hiring an attorney over. And it was discouraging when the Federal agency, the SEC, was so incompetent they couldn't help me enforce their own rules.

So years later, we opened an IRA at Bank of America. Little did we know that BofA was going to buy Merrill Lynch, but they did so. Suddenly we start getting a ton of ###, and yes I do mean ###, from Merrill Lynch saying they now were controlling our IRA. First it was called Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, and now they changed the name of it to Merrill Edge. We started getting copies of statements from BOTH company names showing the balance of our IRA.

It was somewhat disconcerting to see how confused they are. So I called today and gave both the old account number and the new account number. Guess what? They asked, as part of a security question, "how much money is in your account". My answer was the amount listed on my statement. My answer was incorrect. After much discussion and proving who I was by answering many questions, it comes out that the account has ZERO funds in it.

I asked the individual on the phone, "Where did the money go". And he says, "He can't see that". I said, "Who can see that", he didn't know. So he put me on hold for almost 30 minutes and came back and said, "Someone would have to get back to me tomorrow". I mentioned how it says on the statement to call this number for 24 hour assistance, and he said, "Well, that doesn't mean we can tell you what happened to your account balance".

If you deal with Merrill Lynch and have had good experiences, well isn't that just jolly for you, but I will say you have been a very lucky person because Merrill Edge (or whatever the hell they are called now) is utterly incompetent.

A few minutes after this experience a Merrill representative called, apologized for the confusion and was able to explain that yes, of course, our funds were in the account. She gave me her name and extension. After I hung up, I realized how upset I was. Being told your IRA has zero fund in it, well, it made me surprisingly stressed. So I called back and tried to get the young woman who was so helpful, but she was gone or something. So I asked the young man to help me, and he said he'd be glad to and then ...he hung up on me. So I very calmly called back and spoke to another person, went through the entire identification thing again, answered all the questions, and explained to him nicely what was occurring. He said he would take the complaint and he did so, although I have to wonder if he really did take any complaint at all.

After a total of 2 1/2 hours trying to deal with Merrill Edge, I just want to go pull my hair out. What a nightmare! At least they have our money and didn't lose it all. I can only imagine if they'd been a real problem, trying to deal with this incompetence would be a nightmare. We are going to open a new account at a local brokerage where I can go in and speak with a real person, and transfer everything out of Merrill Edge.

Customer service number is [protected]. System is automated, but NONE of the options allow you to talk to a human. Many legitimate services for your brokerage accounts are unavailable through the automated system and you can't speak to a human to close your account and have a check sent with the proceeds.

The money goes in, but it never comes out. Stay away from Merrill Lynch Edge.

Since its untimely demise all areas of payment processing at Merrill is suffering. Since August 2008, I have incurred $200.00 in late fees as Merrill is now taking between 10-20 days to process payments. Payments mailed on the 14th of each much are not applied until well after the due date (21st) of each month. There managers play the blame game and really do nothing to acknowledge that they are beginning to have a payment processing issue.