Merrill-Lynch

The website was beyond confusing and calling the toll free number only put me on hold for two ** hours. When I was able to get through, the person on the other end couldn't speak English. So long, Merrill-Lynch! If I told others you suck, it would be putting it mildly!

Accounts closed two years ago because of inept and unprofessional service. Now, 2012, I am receiving a bill for an account annual service fee. Attempts to correct by phone are Kafkaesque. Only persons reachable can't help and put me back into phone tree that doesn't work.

I have contacted Merrill Lynch on the following dates regarding the unauthorized and unannounced liquidation of Merrill Market Holders 2000 account: January 13, 2012; January 17, 2012; January 18, 2012; and January 19, 2012. Each contact required me to describe the situation and after each discussion a promise was made by the Merrill Lynch representative that a senior financial adviser would get back to me. That has never occurred. In some cases log notes were not entered on my account detailing the content and scope of my conversation with the Merrill Lynch representative. To date I or my wife has spoken to the following ML representatives: Brandon **, John **, Dan **, and Mark **.

The reason for my contact was that on 12-22-2011 Merrill Lynch suspended trading on 11 of their HOLDRS investment accounts. While Merrill Lynch reorganizes these products, all $305m in assets are being held by the Bank of NY and ML is not allowing shareholders to have access to the fund value or cash. I checked my statement one morning and saw that nearly $10,000 had vanished, Merrill fund MKH. No one at Merrill could explain what happened; I had to conduct research on the internet to find out. A series of long and frustrating experiences with ML to resolve this situation. At this time no one can tell me when I can withdraw my money. While this is in limbo, Merrill Lynch continues to earn interest on the funds $305m.

My father requested a close of his account and for them to send a check to him in October 2011. They sent the check; however, when he went to deposit it at the BoA where he has an account, it could not be cashed into that account because my mother's name was also on the account. My mother passed away in September 2010 and shortly thereafter my father removed her name from his BoA account and presented the BoA with an original certificate of death for my mother. So the BoA knew that she was deceased.

The account at Merrill Lynch most likely did not, so my father asked BoA to verify my mom's death and that was not sufficient for M-L. At that point we began a long tedious process of having the issued check voided, he sent a death certificate to M-L, he opened up a new account at M-L in his name only, and all to qualify for the request reissue of the closed account. It is now January 6, 2012, which is 77 days after this check was brought to the BoA and still they have not reissued my father a check.

This is extremely unbelievable as they have found excuse after excuse to relay this transfer. We are continuing to take concern as the amount of the check is for over 60 thousand dollars. 8 days ago we were told that the check was to be reissued and mailed and that he could expect it in 5 days. When we called today our local BoA called M-L and then M-L called us (legal and estate department) and informed us that there is another paper that has to be notarized with my father confirming that he did not receive the check due to the amount being so high. We are doubly concerned now because he did receive a check. We actually have the check still and have written void on it for safe keeping.

This is completely amazing. It sincerely feels like M-L is giving my father and us, and perhaps our local BoA, although they have a partnership. We feel there is something very wrong, if not illegal going on here. This money is in limbo right now and for the past 77 days. This money belongs to my father and it needs to be given to him as he has requested. If there is something wrong with the institute of M-L whereby they are keeping peoples money, we need to know and we need to know what to do about it.

I had transferred my IRA to Bank of America and was told no service charges. I, too, also received a statement for a $50.00 charge. They said it was for paperwork because the account is not over 50,000. I said to the ML representative that they are just like the government, charging the little guy and letting the rich keep their riches. I am suggesting to my employer to also move our company's simple plan to another company, Charles Schwab; they have no fee for accounts over $1,000.00. They were glad to have my business and, hopefully, we will move our company's business there soon. Merrill-Lynch doesn't care about having you for a customer if you don't have a lot of money.

My husband and I had all our money invested with Merrill Lynch. Prior to the "crash" of 2008, I had a total net portfolio value which was significant. My husband passed away in 2002 and the FP at Merrill Lynch called me often. He bought about 40,000 worth of Freddie and Fannie and called me complaining about the federal government and how they lost so much of my money. What he neglected to tell me was that I had significant financial losses across the board. I was a 77-year old widow and had been told that I was invested accordingly.

When he finally explained my losses to my daughter, who had begun to help me with my financial responsibilities, I had lost 50% of my husband's hard-earned money. He tried to blame me by saying that I was asking for too much money. To the contrary, he was always contacting me to buy this, sell this. I thought it was normal business practice.

When my daughter confronted these significant losses, he said it was my fault, the economy's fault and the government for the Fannie and Freddie meltdown. I had no idea what he meant. I later found out that he had me placed in a far less conservative portfolio management plan than he should have. I was devastated. The 2008 economic crisis did not come overnight. He never once called to advise me such that I could have cut some of my losses and convert some of these risky investments to cash. It is strange that he never left me alone as he was constantly moving money around, making deals and earning significant fees before this. Now, he was nowhere to be found, hiding from me.

I have been a customer of Bank of America (BA) for more than 10 years with them having excellent personal service. When my accounts were transferred to Merrill Lynch (ML), I had to undergo 2 separate account number changes for each of my brokerage and investment accounts with them. I was okay with that. However, two weeks ago, I received notice that I owe ML an annual account fee on one of the investment accounts which I've never had to pay before. After multiple calls to the local ML office and the online support people, they simply shrugged their shoulders. So I decided to do what any consumer should be allowed to do, and moved 2 of the accounts over to another firm.

Today, I noticed that they had the gall to charge me an 'account transfer fee' on each of the accounts that I transferred. How can this be moral and/or legal? Especially, since one of the accounts was an IRA. I will move the remainder of my accounts and never do business with ML again. What a disaster the ML acquisition was for BA. If you want to get out of ML and have the option, sell your holdings and ask for the cash, then close the account.

I had NextGen accounts set up for my two children when I was married. When I divorced, it stated in the divorce decree that I was the custodian of the accounts for my two children and that I would have to give my ex-husband an accounting of anything I do with the money in the accounts on April 1, of each year. Well, my son started his freshman year of college this past September. I took out the amount the college needed with out a problem. My son needed more money for food and living expenses, I once again withdrew the amount needed. About a week later, I started receiving text messages from my ex asking why I took out more money? Well, my financial planner disclosed my personal business with my ex. Thinking this was unethical, I contacted another Merrill Lynch office to have my accounts transferred.

The new planner said this would not be a problem and that he would send me the proper forms. I received the forms filled them out and sent the statements he needed. About a week later, I received a phone call from my new Financial Planner and he said we have a small problem and I asked what it was. He said that he had talked to my old FP and that he informed him that there was a divorce decree stating that I could not do anything with out my ex's permission. I told him this was not the case and as soon as I got home I would fax over the copy of the decree regarding the NextGen accounts. He then stated that he would prefer not to get involved with all of this.

So, I made copies of the decree, typed up a letter to my FP stating the reason I wanted to now close out my accounts and pay the fee to have the money wired to different accounts that have nothing to do with ML along with the proper forms they needed to do so. That was two weeks ago! I have tried logging into my accounts but it states there is not any information on these accounts? I have tried contacting different people at ML's headquarters but most of the numbers have been disconnected or the people you speak with are unable to help you? I re faxed the paperwork along with another letter stating to please contact me and let me know what the problem is. I can not believe that this is ethical? The accounts have been losing money like crazy, it's not fair that they can do this and I have no rights.

In 1998, I put $500 into an IRA to offset owing taxes. In 2000, I received a notice that I would no longer receive statements in the mail. I didn't worry about it. I figured I wouldn't worry about it until I needed it. I did, however, try to contact someone when I moved mid-2000, but became frustrated and gave up (turns out they changed my account number, but since they no longer mailed statements I didn't know this). Over the course of the next 11 years, I attempted a few times to track down my account with no luck. Mail and email never got a response. I finally tracked it down about a week ago. It took hours but eventually they found the account which had been closed since 2006. Apparently they began levying maintenance fees quarterly and annually. Since the fund never made more than about $1.23 per month, the entire amount was finally consumed in fees by 2006. I was horrified this had happened. I don't know who to contact with my outrage that his can happen.

My mother Irene ** has tried to close her account several times. The first time, they sent a check but charged her $15.00 to send it. Then, they left a few dollars in the account, against what she asked. Then, they charged her a $125.00 service charge and took the money. Now they have $0.01 in the account and refuse to close it. Please forward a copy to SEC. Thank you.

Merrill Lynch Advisory Group is the worst financial advisory people I run into. They are not trained as professional but they believe you know nothing about money so they can fool around you. They strongly persuaded me to buy a lot of funds before 2008 after my money was hanging a couple of year. Then the money lost over 33%. But they never admitted they made bad decisions but kept their arrogant attitude by blaming the markets. They are not smart, not responsible and not professional. I can manage my money much better than them.

Today I'm really frustrated and upset with a company that I thought was turning around. But it seems like they're up to a new trick for the public. Merrill Edge is the company who is apart of Bank of America. Recently, I set up an account with this company and deposited an undisclosed amount (under $5k). Initially, Bank of America wouldn't open up an account for me and I went to Merrill Edge and got approved for an account. Mind you, I have an account with SunTrust, Etrade, and a credit union. So, opening accounts is not a problem.

Today I went to log into my account and the site would not grant me access to my account. First, I wanted to make sure that I was entering the correct info, but surely that wasn't the problem. So, I proceeded to call Merrill Edge. The guy that picked up the phone said that he had to call another department, so he did. He came back to the phone but he couldn't offer me any info on why my account was locked. Mind you, I have trades that were in my account that I wanted to trade in order to increase my worth. These people are the worst. I'm basically stuck and I can't do anything about it. I went into the bank that I tried to open an account up at. They said that they couldn't give me info, but if anything they will send me a check for my money (**). What can be done about this?

I have tried twice for different reason to borrow against my $401k but to no avail. There almost always have an excuse. The first time was to borrow for my son to go to college and it was denied. When I faxed a copy of the paper work that was requested, I faxed it from my place of employment several times and was told that it was upside down and couldn't be read. I ended up paying for it without the help of my money.

Now, I again sent in for a hardship to have some dental procedure for my son. I sent them how much I need to pay and how much my insurance will pay. I recently received a letter stating that the balance I will have to pay says nothing about having to be prepaid. Also, I didn't have the appointment scheduled. This Merrill Lynch thing is hard to schedule an appointment and the company seems to always find a reason not to let you borrow against your own money.

I am going to continue borrowing for my son's dental procedure. If declined again, for whatever reason that Merrill Lynch will find not to let me borrow against my own money, I will look at moving to another company. They may all be the same but that's a risk that I am willing take. It should not be this difficult and stressful to try to get some of your own money to have things taken care of.

I cannot access my account, for over a week now to balance out my margin, add funds, and I have lost over $5,000 because I could not execute trades that would have sold me out of my position in back and then re-purchased back at a lower price (more money lost), while reinvesting a sizable amount of the divestiture in other more stable stocks, which have since gained 7% plus. I have called ML edge's customer services phone number many times and documented the calls and have been able to get not one inkling, about why access to my account has been restricted, nor have I received any notification in the US mail, as to the restriction being placed and or why and or who to contact to have the restriction lifted.

Despite speaking with customer services reps and their respective managers, nobody at Merrill Lynch's has provided one single reason for this "restriction" and promises that the phantom department, which placed the restriction, would call me at my home or office phone numbers within 48 hours has not materialized. Now, one week later, while stocks I wanted to sell continue to free-fall and I hemorrhage more and more money , all while having the horror of a forced margin call, which I cannot stop because I cannot deposit funds or access my account to see the correct margin and house maintenance has been maintained. Does your brokerage have a "PR" person, who is not scared of a story like this being leaked to the press? And this phantom department whose name I cannot be told, and who ML's own edge reps admit that they cannot even reach by telephone themselves is doing what with my account.

I have repeatedly offered to go into a Merrill Lynch office locally to properly identify myself and discuss the matter but have been told on three occasions that that would not help me one bit as my account is a Merilee ** account and therefore I have no physical building and no person whom I may go to visit in person to address and correct whatever concerns or misunderstanding must have caused this ludicrous situation, which I am still not privy to despite my dozen attempts to get answers by calling different ML phone numbers and local offices all to no avail. While I ponder how to bring, well, if I should file suit to protect my financial interests (referring to my ML edge account's holdings and losses resulting from this what I can only assume must be an unlawful way of placing such a restriction), as well as regain control of my account and transfer the holding to another institution, it would be conceivable that it would not end well for Merrill and I am only asking that attempts be made immediately, meaning post haste, to restore my account and or contact me as to why such action has been taken. Additionally, I am formally requesting that I be sent a certified letter detailing the reason's behind your actions and listing a phone number and address where either myself or my attorney may reach a representative who is versed with the aforementioned matter.

I am hereby giving formal written notice that I would like Merrill Lynch edge to call me within two business days at ** and **, both listed on my ML edge account, or I will contact my attorney to pursue this matter and attempt to recover any losses, due to your companies negligent handling of this matter, and if necessary file a lawsuit(s) if necessary, no matter if it costs me in excess of the value of my account or a $50,000 retainer, as I am now pursuing this as a matter of principle. Should your company comply and return the call within the next two business days, I will make every effort to work this matter out in a non-litigious, amicable and fair manner, which is all I have wanted since day one. Furthermore, if upon calling, I should not be available to answer the phone, you are instructed to please leave a detailed message on my voice mail including the name and phone number of edge representative who I may call back the same or following business day to discuss this matter and get some answers.

I have been trying since January 2011 to get $10,000 from my 401K from Merrill Lynch. I tried to borrow and have it paid from my wife's check, but they said, "No." So, I said I needed the money directly. I have been unemployed since the Chrysler Plant closed in Delaware in December of 2009. I actually have two complaints. Chrysler still owes me $40,000 from my buyout agreement that keeps me from collecting unemployment, which will be two years in February of 2012.

Merrill Lynch promised since April that I would get the money. They've given me so much of a runaround. Then on July it was approved, I moved, and yadda-yadda-yadda! They say they're working on getting me the money. I am ready to go ballistic! I have no job. My transmission went in the only vehicle I own, and I need to get it fixed to get it transferred. My wife is ready to lose her job because it requires her to have a car, and they are refusing to give me my own money!

I just got hired and then got laid off. I need help now! Please, help me. My wife is the only income we have; if she loses her job, we will be homeless. We are already struggling, and I have a 401K with money in it that they won't give me. Please, can you help us? We are desperate!

I have been trying to get Merrill Lynch to send me a check for money from my deceased father's account, that is owed to me and my sister after probate. They have made numerous "administrative errors" regarding disbursement of this money. The probate was completed on the 4th of Aug 2011 and we expected to have our funds no later than the 15th of Sep 2011. On our last call to ML, they said someone had made an error and that it would take another 20 days to get the check cut. They are saying now to wait until the 1st week of Oct. What a sham! If our money is not forthcoming in Oct who can I call to get some action?

Ml advisor has violated privacy by obtaining information from a bank account that there is a court order against this person prohibiting them from information. Also has changed mail, with no legal authority to do so, and has personal mail sent to the ML office that belongs to someone else legally, and has also divulged financial information to persons who have no legal authority to have the information.

I complained and get the "Yeah, see you, from BoA", regarding the ethics of this person--a person who has previous bankruptcy background and is known to associate with a known felon. This ML advisor can not pass a cheek swab test for drugs, guarantee it. BoA refuses to investigate.

Merrill Lynch sold my stock without my consent. I called and they said they were sorry and offered to purchase the shares back if I paid them a fee.

What a scam. I cannot believe that Merrill Lynch would stoop so low. Do not give a dime to Merrill Lynch. They are not your mother's Merrill Lynch. They have been Bank of America-fied.

Merrill Lynch sucks. Do not use them. They will sell your stock without your consent and then offer to charge you a fee to buy it back.

I advice anyone who is thinking of setting up an account at Merrill Lynch, especially Merrill Edge, to stay away from them! It is a total waste of your time to deal with them, although their ad sounds good--service/advisor free. It proves to be too good to be true!

In an attempt to consolidate my retirement account, I decide to transfer my rollover RIA acounts to Merrill Edge. Bad decision! The advisor who picked up the phone try to convince me transferring my retirement funds to them by "selling the service free". Soon after I initiated the transfer process, it means whoever picked up your phone the first time, the assess will sit under his/her name for "managing". But the truth is, they neither manage nor provide advice. The worst thing is I made numerous attempts to make appointments with the advisor which my fund is under, I could not reach him repeatedly. My money transfer encountered an issue. After one month till today, the money transfer is still not completed. The issue could not be resolved. I could not reach the person whom I was dealt with the first time and no one else in the team can help me. I am stuck.

Finally I contacted the manager for the Arizona call center. At first, I thought he will assign me to a more responsible and reliable advisor. I am wrong again. Despite my initial discussion, the second person assigned to me seems fine. I thought we understood the ground rule for attending the appointment. I made an appointment for this Monday night at 7 p.m. to conduct "free" financial analysis for my household last Thursday when I was reassigned to the second advisor.

Here I am on the phone to call Merrill Edge call center and try to locate the advisor. I was put on hold for nearly 30 minutes. Finally, someone from a different call center pick up the phone and still not able to locate the advisor whom I am supposed to meet.

After nearly 50 minutes on the phone with another advisor from another call center and left a message for the Arizona office team manager, finally a lady from the Arizona office called me and informed me the advisor whom I made an appointment with at 7 p.m. is not in the office today. So I wasted a good one hour before I found out about this, despite the fact I requested the advisor to send me a short e-mail ahead of time if he can't make it to the appointment.

Totally waste of time. Now I spend another 30 minutes to type this complaint and hoping no one else will continue washing time as I did with them.

I ordered the sale of stock warrants on December 29, 2010 before they expired. The order was a limit good until canceled at .025. That sale was executed on December 30th when the same warrants hit .05. I have a paper record of the order and the valuations of the stock on December 30th. These are a matter of public record. Somehow they lost all electronic records of the sale order and its execution. This left me holding expired warrants. The warrant expired at .015. On January 3, I called to inquire. After 30 minutes, I was told that the warrants expired and there was no record of the sale. How does a sale that is executed come to be unexecuted?

On August 19, 2010, I applied for a home loan/refinance with Merrill Lynch Home Loans. I was told that it would take about 60 days. We closed on Dec 23, 2010 after much of the followup and actions had to be hand held by me personally.

As part of my approval, ML also needed to submit a subordination agreement. ML's Ryan ** faxed it to the wrong address or bank and told me that it was done and pending. After waiting for 2 weeks, I personally called the bank and they had not received the documents. It was unknown where he faxed this information thus violating my personal confidentiality!

In addition, the good faith estimate proved to be wrong and omitted onerous legal fees totaling $1,625. I was also told that I would not need to bring cash to the closing. However at the closing, I was told that in order to close a bank check, $5,960 was required which I believe would violate ML's lending requirements and would cause me emotional and financial issues. I was also told that one-year homeowners insurance needed to be prepaid! Furthermore, I received another good faith estimate after closing!

I am a Merrill-Lynch employee on Long Term Disability since 1998. When Bank of America bought us out, they said that I had been overpaid $2,600 over a 10-year period and started taking money out of my account. They said if I do not comply, they would stop all future payments. They treated me on the same level of someone owing a delinquent credit card debt. Merrill-Lynch was very professional and there has never been a problem until BoA took over.

Mother-in-law set up account many years ago which followed agent to Bank of America which merged with Merrill Lynch. After problems with lack of responsiveness and professionalism, account was salvaged from being transferred to another company by financial advisor Casey *** who over the years served well. Last account to be closed was IRA which had not seen activity apart from automatic RMD to allow for growth.

Many discussions between agent and self (trustee for client who suffered from Alzheimer's Disease) regarding draw-downs of all accounts to meet client's needs. Last account to be closed was IRA. Attempts to close IRA thwarted by legal department of Merrill Lynch which demanded that durable power of attorney of 19 years be replaced with Merrill Lynch approved form for power of attorney. This would require a signature from a competent person. As Merrill Lynch acquired Bank of America after my mother-in-law had lost her ability to sign her name as well as any semblance of competency, this was impossible.

Merrill Lynch had never disclosed a policy stating that only their power of attorney forms would be acceptable and refused to grandfather in the previous power of attorney which had served my mother-in-law for many years including with other financial institutions. Only Susan *** responded to calls in a timely way and acted as an advocate. Casey *** had forwarded the activity to her as she was above him. All other attempts to contact people within Merrill Lynch received no response, including attempts from attorney Robert ***, son of the client, who had drawn up the power of attorney who asked why his legal work was being rejected when it had served in all other areas. He has been practicing 30 years and is a part time law professor for 15 years.

Legal department staff do not have any contact with actual clients of the company and never disclosed names or actual reasons for rejection. Client was literally dying during this process which has not been resolved in a way to benefit both client and company. Dealing with the legal department and Merrill Lynch has been more stressful than 8 1/2 years of being a primary care provider for someone with advancing Alzheimer's Disease. Primary rule to remember in dealing with Alzheimer's patients is not to try and reason with patient as they are always right and lack the judgement to be able to understand context.

My dad passed away over three years ago and we had Merrill Lynch Trust Co. in charge of distributing the funds they have sold one of the houses that was valued at over $700,000 dollars for just a little over $200,000 dollars and gave my sister my brother and I each a check for $1700 dollars. They keep ignoring my calls lying to us about the release of the funds and this has been going on for almost four years with this company. We have more property and we don't want to let Merrill Lynch handle any more of our affairs. I had time and money invested in this house that they sold for next to nothing $ 25,000 that I never got back. I don't want them to control any more of our money.

I have an investment with Merrill Lynch Bank and Trust Co. through Chrysler Financial Salaried. I don't work for Chrysler anymore and haven't for almost 14 years. During my short employment with Chrysler, I managed to save $7,134.00 in a 401K Plan. Once I became unemployed with Chrysler, the funds remained in the 401K Plan account accumulating interest based on the stock market.

One day, somewhere in the beginning of the fall of Ford stock, 2006/2007, I decided to call Merrill Lynch to shift $3,000 into Ford stock. At the time of purchase, the stock market was around $7.32. After allocating $3,000 to the Ford stock, my account was left at or around $4,134.00. The Ford stock continued to drop and I didn't worry because I knew that it would soon regain its strength and I would not loose.

Today, October 14, 2010, Ford Stock in $13.94almost doubled. I received my statement and the account reads, $4, 867.16. That's fine for the money which was left in the account after the investment meaning it gained approx. $733.16, over a 3 year period, but the investment that I made with Ford which was $3,000.00 should have almost doubled to $6,000.00 to total $10,867.16 or very close to it.

I called Merrill Lynch on the 13th of October and they told me that they didn't see any investment. I called today, Oct. 14th and they told me the same thing. I asked them to look back to the records dated 2006, which they did and they can see the transfer of funds and they can also see where the $3,000.00 was now $2,900.00 so I know they see the funds because Ford stock did drop to $2.00 but now that it has doubled since my purchase. They can't seem to identify with anything that I am talking about. I spoke to a Lori ** who got very nasty with me and put me on hold where I waited for 48 minutes until I hung up and called back. I am seeking legal assistance on tomorrow because I promise; if I have to take everything I have to make a point a point will be made.

I have an investment with Merrill Lynch Bank and Trust Co. through Chrysler Financial Salaried. I don't work for Chrysler anymore and haven't for almost 14 years. During my short employment with Chrysler, I managed to save $7,134.00 in a 401K Plan. Once I became unemployed with Chrysler, the funds remained in the 401K Plan account accumulating interest based on the stock market.

One day, somewhere in the beginning of the fall of Ford stock, 2006/2007, I decided to call Merrill Lynch to shift $3,000 into Ford stock. At the time of purchase, the stock market was around $7.32. After allocating $3,000 to the Ford stock, my account was left at or around $4,134.00. The Ford stock continued to drop and I didn't worry because I knew that it would soon regain its strength and I would not lose.

Today, October 14, 2010, Ford Stock in $13.94 almost doubled. I received my statement and the account reads, $4, 867.16. That's fine for the money which was left in the account after the investment. Meaning, it gained approx. $733.16, over a 3 year period, but the investment that I made with Ford which was $3,000.00 should have almost doubled to $6,000.00 to total $10,867.16 or very close to it.

I called Merrill Lynch on the 13th of October and they told me that they didn't see any investment. I called today, Oct. 14th and they told me the same thing. I asked them to look back to the records dated 2006, which they did and they can see the transfer of funds and they can also see where the $3,000.00 was now $2,900.00, so I know they see the funds because Ford stock did drop to $2.00 but now that it has doubled since my purchase, they can't seem to identify with anything that I am talking about. I spoke to a Lori ** who got very nasty with me and put me on hold where I waited for 48 minutes until I hung up and called back. I am seeking legal assistance on tomorrow because I promise if I have to take everything I have to make a point, a point will be made.

In 2006, my company filed bankruptcy and my account was rolled over into an IRA. I called these people, emailed and sent letters to them to close the account and got no response. I could not deal with them anymore being so far away. In July 2010, I returned to the US. I learned the account was in abandonment and through many phone calls, finally got it out. I was sent an account book and when I went online, there was nothing in it. When I called them they told me I had no money left in the account making me think I lost everything due to the bad economy. I could not get anyone on the phone and was cut off twice so I called a local Merrill-Lynch and spoke with Michelle **. She called them and then called me back in September saying they would call me in 2 days at 3 pm. They never did and when I emailed her several times about it, she never responded.

But the more I thought about it, the angrier I got. These people continued to send me emails saying my address was wrong and to contact them or my account would go into abandonment again. When I called and talked to Steve, he said that that was normal behavior to see if they had the correct address. That is absurd. Steven was nice and told me he would find out where my money was and finally called me on October 12th saying he found my money that they had forgotten to put it in my account. I told him the same thing I told them since 2007 that I wanted to close my account. He is now telling me that the money will be in my account on Friday, October 15th. He said he will call me again on Friday.

He said I can either get a check or set up to get my money transferred to my bank. I am worried. What would have happened to the money if I had not continued to pursue this and why am I being charged for all those years when I asked them to close the account? I want all my fees returned to me and I want the original balance of $1059.81 that was in my account when I first asked them to close my account. I see a lot of complaints against Merrill-Lynch online. They are dangerous and disorganized.

I called Merrill Lynch numerous times on 09/08/10, 09/09/10 and on 09/10/10 visited their main office in Orlando, Fl in order to have funds transferred from my investment account to my business checking account. I was asked numerous times by the Bank of America staff at the Merrill Lynch main office why I wanted to speak to Merrill Lynch staff and only after telling them that I was going to call the police and file a complaint did they let me go to the 8th floor at Merrill Lynch.

When I arrived at the door Michelle ** was initially very hesitant in helping me but once I mentioned reporting this to the police she became very helpful in contacting Lakisha ** and Adam ** by phone. We spent close to 1 hour waiting on line. I was finally told by both mentioned individuals (Adam & Lakisha) that I would have my funds transferred by the close of business today on 09/10/10 and it is 5:46PM EST and my money has still not been transferred. I sure would like to contact a lawyer to place the fear of God into these people.

I also mentioned that I was going to close my account and I recommend that no one open an account at Merrill Lynch. I was depending on this money transfer to pay for my hotel stay, kids school tuition, food, gas, car insurance etc. until I got a job in Florida. Now I'll have to suffer untold embarrassment and lost credibility. My wife, 2 kids and I are most probably going to get kicked out of the Days Inn that I'm staying at in Orange City, Orlando if I don't find a way to get money fast. I'd like an attorney to help us.

A family dispute over the distribution was settled by a court order called a TEDRA in Washington State (Trust Estate Dispute Resolution Act). Merrill Lynch is now stalling in making the distributions or defying the TEDRA that is Washington State Law.

I tried to open an account in my daughter's name. It had now been one week and that account has not been opened yet. Merrill ****, does not have the courtesy of calling my daughter nor send an e-mail to inform us why they can't open the account or what is missing. Every time my daughter had to call them and ask them, they would ask for documents which were already faxed to them.

In the last phone call she had with them, she was informed that everything they need is there and they will send an e-mail confirming that the account is being opened. This has not happened yet. It became so frustrating that I had to call them several times to find out but they won't share anything with me. I begged them to call my daughter or e-mail her to let her know what is happening with the account. They said that they can't do that and my daughter needs to keep calling.

I hired this company to advise me financialy in or around Feb 1998 and had what I will describe as a good relation with the advisory group of Moyer& Moyer, specificlly Scott M.In the spring of 2005 I was called to Mr.M's office in Marrietta Ohio and advised to buy into these mutual funds that were described as 25 bundles of assets managed by the top fund managers in the buisness and that thier jobs depended on thier record as managers(mutual funds) and if they did'nt perform they would be replaced.

I followed his advice and bought into these mutual funds and by March 2008 my portfolio was worth 292,659.72. This fund provided the larger portion of my retirement.When the market started to fall in late 2008 I conversed with Mr. M and voiced my concern. He assured me that this was a short term thing and that the market had maintained a 7% yearly average through thick and thin.In early 2009 I again voiced my concerns and stated if I had to take a reduction in my withdrawals I would not be able to meet my mortgage commitments and might loose my home.Again I was reassured and told to hold on.

I told Mr. M I did not want the value of my portfolio to go below 200,000.00.My instructions were ignored by Mr M and the mutual funds failed to do as promised which was to protect the investors investment.When my portfolio dropped to 167,000.00 I could no longer remain on the side line so I removed my funds from Mr M control and put them into a CD.Mr M called me and expressed his dismay at being "fired" saying it had never happened before and that I was premature in closing my account.

I had my 401k money sent to me in a check and I rolled it over in an ira with fidelity the next day I got a letter saying the check was not good that they will send me another in the meantime I could not invest my money they charged me $50.00 to process the first check now my money just sits there depending on what I was investing in how much money have I not made I at least what my $50.00 back.

I work within my son's account with Avis/Budget. I transferred from one account to another around $4000 on May 3, 2010. Merrill Lynch put that money into a different account that won't allow a withdrawal for up to 90 days and makes a lot less money. That transfer accomplishes a lot for their company and nothing for my son. Lost cash!

My mother-in-law had a very unfortunate situation happen with Merrill Lynch on or around March 2009. She had a significant amount of a particular stock at one time and she was margining against the stock for years. When the stock market plummeted and the stock traded as low as 46, Merrill Lynch sold her stock out from under her without giving her the option of adding money to maintain a proper margin balance. This action caused her undue hardship in the loss of the stock and also tax implications.

5.) Her broker also knew she had other income, a Merrill pension and another company's pension.

Essentially, I believe there was no need to sell the stock out when in fact she was capable of paying her margin call. The loss of capital from $46 to $66 is a substantial sum of money plus given the stock purchase prices, almost zero cost basis, her tax implications were even worse. This hardship has also caused her undue mental stress which has aided in her mental deterioration.

Met Life refused to pay me my husband's pension because we divorced. Nothing about the pension was mentioned in our divorce papers and he always believed I would be the beneficiary because I was listed as the beneficiary. He willed everything to me because unlike many divorces, ours was amicable. We have a daughter and it seems as though benefits he worked hard for should be distributed to someone.

We are forced to live in poverty, because this company refuses to pay out the one benefit we believed we had coming. My husband supported us well when he was alive and it didn't matter if we were married or not. Unfortunately, he got pancreatic cancer and died when he was 53. I tried to take care of many of the legal paperwork but did not know the intricacies of this pension fund. And he was too sick to take care of these things himself. In this case, he believed we were the beneficiaries and did not worry about the pension he had with Merrill Lynch through Met Life. Is there anything we can do about this great injustice?

One of most important issue in financial reform that needs to be addressed is the "Financial Advisors Scam". The Public is being ripped off by financial advisors scam, and ponzi style scheme, in which they con consumers to open an account, and then charge advisors' fees. They start by giving you losing stock trading advise or no advise. They don't care if it is bad advise or no advise. Advisors' fee dictates that they get paid anyway, even for poor or no performance. This scam used by Financial Institutions is designed to peel away the consumers' "principal deposit".

Let me clearly illustrate this scam:

You deposit $50,000. They start giving you losing stock trades or no advise. Let's say you lose $1,000. Your account is at $49,000. Now, they charge you an advisor fee of, let's say, $500. Your account balance is now $48,500.00. You lose $1,500. They continue with this scam until your account has a substantial loss. If you complain or express any dissatisfaction, they will kick you out. You go to another firm, and the process is repeated all over again, and you're at further losses.

A second illustration:

Goldman Sachs went before Congressional hearings, recently, and told Congress that they place trades for their Advisory Clients and then take the other side of the trade. Their Advisory Clients lose against Goldman Sachs, and then they charge their clients Advisory fees. They further stated that this doesn't happen to their Institutional Clients (a clear discrimination).

As you can understand, this unethical scam provides them with a loophole to practice and profit from this scam. Five hundred dollars from your principal goes to the financial institution for total non-performance. To close the loophole and unethical scam, consumers request that financial advisors be prohibited from taking advisor fees from the principal amount initially deposited and profits made after advisor fees, i.e. Deposit $50,000 (Prohibited advisor fees), profit $1,000 = $51,000. Advisor fees based on deposit and profit = $500. Account balance $50,500.00 (This becomes principal and further advisor fees from this amount is prohibited until further profit is made). This will stop the scam, promote performance, and begin to rebuild confidence back into the integrity of the financial institution systems and the consumers confidence in the Government integrity in protecting the consumers from this abuse, and ponzi style scheme.

The above prohibition is needed as part of Financial Institutions' reform. Anything short of correcting this scam is clear support of it. How would you like it if they did this to you?

I went from $1.2 million (shot on the job, disability award) down to $20,000.00. This scam was perpetrated on me by Merrill Lynch, UBS, and Stifel.

Unethical Behavior: My husband and I recently put in an offer on a foreclosed home to Single Source Property Solutions FHHL- Merrill Lynch. Another offer came in a day later so we increased our offer. A week later the bank counter offered to both us and the other party. We accepted their offer and returned our information within a few hours. The other couple did not. The bank did not sign their own counter offer.

Three business days later two more offers came in and now they are saying that we have to put in a new higher offer. This is not right and they should not be allowed to get away with stringing people along especially since we did everything correctly and within their two day window. This is the house of our dreams and it is being snatched away because of the banks unethical behavior.

Their counter offer to us clearly communicated the intent to enter into a legal agreement within a two day window. They strung us along for three business days and then asked for more money. We stand to loose this home now, even though we played by their rules. This behavior is clearly unethical and our laws should catch up with these unfair practices against fellow Americans.

I called to see if I could withdraw funds on hardship so that I would not loose my home and get evicted. I also wanted to draw out enough to pay bills ahead so that I would not have to worry about being homeless. They told me that I needed to prove one out of some many reasons to be able to do so. So I did and then when I called they told me I could only Draw out enough to pay my lot rent to keep from getting evicted. Had I been told that I had to have documentation for every bill Including my mortgage, I would have, before pay 20.00 to send just the one I had. If thats not enough stress on me as is, Im worring about all of this while pregnant, and not able to work. If that is not hardship enough then I don't what is. Can you imagine being pregnant and unable to work due to complacations with the pregnancy and not being able to meet your bills. All the while This money that I'm tring to get is money that I payed in! Its not like Im trying to get their money.

My husband had a 401K account with Merrill Lynch with under $200,000 in it. He died April 1, 2007 and the beneficiary form designation was 25% each to his three children from his first marriage and 25% to me. Although I never signed a beneficiary from relinquishing my rights as a beneficiary as stated in Item 4 on the beneficiary form. He filled out 1 form leaving everything to the three children (who are all adults in their 40's) and they sent it back to him.

The next week he sent in a form designating the 25% for each beneficiary. Still did not have my signature and I knew nothing about the account. Therefore the children were given 75% of the account and I was only given 25%. WARNING to all Merrill Lynch customers ...... especially women.... make sure you know WHO the beneficiary desginations are from your husband's account. Merrill Lynch will distribute proceeds even if the forms are not properly filled out.

At this time they owe us over 5,000.00 in bounced check fees. at one point in a months time our account went down by 30,000.00 and we have no idea where that money went. We now have no credit cards at all that we can use. We have spent over 20 years building up our credit and have never missed a payment or written a bad check in our entire lives. Our last statement said that we had 27,000.00 in our account and we are trying to wire transfer money to our bank accout but we have bounced checks so many times with our bank from ML that they hold our wire transfers for days before they will trust it to come through. Right now we will have to file for bankrupcy to get through this

My wife recently lost her job and we have medical & dental bills that need to be paid. We are being sent to collections for these past due bills. We recently applied for a hardship withdrawal attaching about 30 pages of medical bills and dental bill records to prove that we owe this money. We asked for about 7,000 (which our on-line account says we are eligilbe for at least 7100) and they only approved us for 258.00. We are now in the process of being sued by some of these companies. Merrill Lynch said my paperwork wasn't up to date and that they could't approve our hardship. I can't believe they won't approve our hardship withdrawal....this is my money and they are with holding it from me and I am definately in hardship right now. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated!

I have been a client of Merrill Lynch for close to 15 years, had two different broker, and got poor performance out of both of them. The first broker recommended both Fannie Mae(govt. backed home loans) and Sallie Mae(govt. backed student loans) "because they were SAFE, QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES". The first broker was let go because of poor customer performance and I became the "victim" of the second broker. She told me to keep both institutional investments "because they were govt. safe" even though I later found out that an inside memo to their brokers had changed their recommendation from "buy to "sell" and she did nothing. I finally sold both of them for losses of over $25,000 on each.

Like most all brokers, they are interested only in selling under the conditions where they make the maximum commissions rather than looking out for their clients.

My grandparents set up 3 different mutual funds for me with an initial investment of 25K. I decided that during spring of 2009 it was a good time to try and buy some stocks so I took the 15K that was the value of the mutual funds at the time and called the financial advisors name on the paperwork. I had used ameritrade before and got 500 free trades when I had deposited 2k into that and even after those were up the fees were only $9.99 per trade. I thought to myself with no experience using a broker that it can't be that much more to use someone like Merrill Lynch. So I came up with a portfolio of 8 stocks with different weight on each of them. I asked my advisor on the phone "What are your fees?" He responded "Well they differ, obviously with AAPL (the one I bought the most of) it will be a little more, but I will obviously give you a discount."

This bothers me because Merrill Lynch took over 1100 dollars from me when I could have gotten 100 free trades on scottrade or any other site. I am just really not happy with the fact he wasn't up front with me and beat around the bush when I asked him about fees. I also want to see if he really "discounted" me like he said he would which taking 1100 off of 15K from your client whose interest you are supposed to have, it doesn't seem like a discount to me, it seems like I was taken advantage of. I lost over $1,100 dollars in fees not explained to me! I knew it might be slightly more but not 1000 more than about what I expected to pay.

I have been a client of A. Capri for the last 5 years. A. and I have discussed my retirement, my sons future, and my basic needs, we also discussed how my money was presently invested, which included an annuity from Sun Life. Anthony was referred to me from a fellow co worker, he came to my home, I thought he had my best interest and future at heart. I never gave A. a retirement date, as I don't know myself. When I got the 1099 in the mail for 6528.75, I was in total shock. I couldn't understand what it was for. When I found out it was from the sale of my Sun Life Annuity I was furious and confussed. Why would A. swell my annuity knowing I would have to claim the growth and pay a 10 percent penalty, I am not 59 1/2.

This annuity was sold in January 2008, a number of funds were bought with the money. To my amazement I now have to claims $863.84 in dividends, he put me in a personal account not in a retirement account, why I just don't know. I called A. he couldn't remember, he said he would get back to me but has not. I am a widow, this was my late husbands retirement money, If he would have left it when I turned 59 1/2 I could have taken money out with no penalty. I call his supervisor J. M Caruso, and asked to see the forms I had to sign, I have yet to see them or she has not called me back.

I have asked Merrill Lynch to pay the 10% penalty of 863.64, this annuity should never have been sold. I could have managed my money better. I am very upset and would like some answers. I would appreciate anything you can do, you put your life saving with a so called professional and put our faith in that person. Thank you for all your help and anything you can do.

I received a 1099 for 6528.75 which I had to add to my total income and pay a 10% penalty fee of $863.84 also added to my salary, and that put me in another tax bracket and had to also pay income tax.

Five years back we invested $100K in an Anuity Account product on the advice of ML financial advisor. The growth component was market based and we were told/understood that our initial investment/portfolio value should double in about 7 years. It hasnt and in fact is loosing money (thats not the bone of contetion)However we asked and were told by the ML advisor that we couldnt loose our initial investment which is why we went into this fund.

January we saw the portfolio dip below the initial investment amount and called to confirm that if we wanted to take our money out of the fund we could do so..and what was the penalty etc. The new ML financial adviser then told us that we could loose a portion or all of the initial investment dependent on the market. ML misled us when we first bougt the anuity and now want to dismiss it as a misunderstanding on our part which is why we now want to go after them to recover our original investment...and if possible damages etc for lying to us about the initial investment.

Right now we are out $18,000 on the one portfolio and about $16,000 on the second (smaller) portfolio/. This is a case of dishonesty and misleading information on the part of ML then lack of accoubtability on their part in not making our original investment whole because of their employee's misleading statements,

When my mother passed away in 2000, she had a $100,000.00 with the Olson Group at Merrill Lynch. When I went in for an apointment, I specified that I needed to do something with this money but needed the principle secured. I was told that I would be put into an annuity. What I wasn't told was that I would have to be dead for that to happen! When I started looking into this, I also found out about how I could have a monthly income for life off of this. At that time I called and expressed my desire to do so as I had a lot of home expenses and it would give me between $600-700.00 per month. I tried for 6 months and they just ignored me. In the meantime I had no choice but to make withdrawals.

I finally called the main office in Princeton NJ and was told that at this point I would only be able to collect $26.00 per month-I had lost around $25,000.00 due to the market and this was also why I wanted to secure a higher monthly income. But I was blown off. When I was finally able to get their attentin, they agreed it was too late to secure a decent amount of income. I also had wanted to do something else with what was left after having been consistently told that I should recoup my loses in a few months and just stay where I was. I lost more. Finally in March 2004, I was down to about $6,000.00 and had to close it out completely due to the fact that I had to go on Social Security because of ovarian cancer.

Had they originally done what I requested, I would have had the monthly income that was urgently needed at this time as I would be out of work for at least 6 months or more. Needless to say, I had no choice but to go back to work early and put my health at further risk. All of this took place from Dec. 2000 until March 2004. Previousely my mothers attorney was helping her to get copies of all of her dealings with ML over the years as she had started with close to a million dollars and was a single person who lived very frugally. He felt that her broker, A. Schomp ML had scammed her. Unfortunately she did not live long enough to pursue this further and was left with the $100,000.00.

I had received an e-mail from something about Wall Street back in 2004 and briefy submitted my complaint but all I received was an acknowledgement. I do not know what to think of all of this and to me it looks like I was taken advantage of but that it was out of ignorance that this happened as I believe the Olson Group was just as ignorant. As for my mothers situation, I have no idea but I agree with the attorney! Thank you

I would have had enough of a monthly income to supplement my Soc Sec and not have to struggle to try and keep my home and just survive. I am a stage 3c ovarian cancer patient, 53 yrs old raising my 15 year old grandson. My youngest daughter and her children moved in with me to help so I do not lose my home. I am somewhat limited as far as working as I have severe neurotherapy in my feet and hands from chemotherapy so therefore I babysit my grandchildren and my total income monthly is about $650.00 which comes from SSI and disability. When I can work, that income is taken away from me along with the food stamps. I do not expect her to live here forever nd I do not want to lose my home.

Having an account for over 12 yrs with ML; just now thay've imposed a low balance fee with no explanation or indication that this would occurr. Why now? The represenative could not give me a date when this took into effect. His response was you know now! I suggest everyone with ML investments take their money out & distribute you money in another financial instutution. You'll be nickeled & dimed to death before you know it. Just stop the bleeding before it's too late.

Just one more customer that will ML will no longer be nickel & diming to their death.

Five years ago we invested $100K with ML. The investment was for a growth portfolio which according to our ML porfolio manager would at least double over seven years. We were also told that our original investment capital couldnt be touched...in worst case we would always get that back. Now the portfolio balance has dropped below the original $100K investment value and ML is now trying to tell us that we can in fact loose the initial investment. They misrepresented the risk potential of the investment as well as have done nothing over the five years to manage the investment they were entrusted

We want to take our money out of ML because of ongoing trust issues both with the office involved and ML in general based on their CEO's misuse of funds etc. We dont trust ML or their financial expertise to manage our investments. We stand to loose a significant piece of our investment. I want them to resore the original 100K plus pay us interest for the money for the 5 years it did nothing since the investment was their recommendation as being a safe investment.

I was given an IRA from an employer with 2 shares of Columbia HelathCare over 10 years ago. It was only around $650.00 plus the shares but it was to be a long term nest egg.

It has only declined and is now at $52.59. My shares were sold without my permission and when I inquired about how to roll it over to a different company. I had spoken to "Craig" on several occasions always wondering why it never made any money although the market at the time was doing well. I never got a straight answer but it only declined.

I was told today that the account was never in a conservitive mode and that they dont have notes on the account back when it was opened.

I had been told once, it was not maintained because of the small amount. Today I was told, that that was not the case by "Ron". I don't know what to believe but I don't recommend this company to anyone who is trusting anyone with what is in the best interest of the client. Thank you,

On Nov 19, 2008 I returned home from vacation. I note taped to my front door by a neighbor. Merr Lyn had called neighbor about a bill pay support for myself and a case #. It was urgent per the neighbor that I return the call. I do not have anything with Merrill Lynch. I called the phone number and explained this and that how embarassed, humuliated and stressed this call to a neighbor is. I was informed to call and speak with a supervisor. I have tried to no avail. I have asked that a letter be sent to the neighbor with and apology to her and myself.

What a disgrace [the] company is. [They] did not research the person you are trying to reach and have embarassed myself to two of my neighbors for and outstanding bill that is not mine. Then don't care to rectify the problem but I am put on hold for 10 minutes, waiting for a supervisor that does not responds but hangs up. I am forwarding this information to the Division of Consumer Affair also. Even if I owed a bill [they] can not discuss this matter with my neighbors and it isn't mine which makes it worst.

Stress, humuliation, embarassment NO confidence in Merrill Lynch for lack of accountability.

Evidently, Merrill Lynch -- without my permission -- sold shares to satisfy a $50 annual IRA fee - a transaction that was made without me being informed via telephone or e-mail.

The selling of these shares by ML will cost me when the market recovers, plus I have the loss of the dividends. It was not my choice to sell these shares at this time.

After I started asking why my account was moved to a new group of advisors without my permission Ms. Russoniello proceded to place me on what she 'thought was hold' and then proceeded to berate me with another call center worker stating that she was on the phone with some f***ing cu*t, and was ready to just...and I quote...drop me...if I did not shut the f up. After she came back on I asked how I could close my account and she then put me into eternal hold where I was then told by another (yet nicer) gentlemen that I needed to open an account at a new institution and they would handle the transfer. I have since left Merrill Lynch and am at Schwab and much happier. How can these people think they can treat thier own clients like this? How horrible.

I pulled my account from Merrill.

Purchased Freddie Mac Series Z and Fannie Mac Series S preferred stocks on 6/6/08 based upon recommendation from Merrill Lynch (ML) broker, Rashid Ramiz with dividend rate paid quarterly to exceed equivalent CD rates for funds held in ML account. I applied the same recommendation to funds in Fidelity and Chase JPMorgan investment accounts. When news were out about government possibly helping Freddie Mac and Fannie Mac to solve the mortgage default problem, I spoke with Rashid on 8/22/08, the ML Financial Advisor. He indicated there would not be a problem with dividend. News was released Monday, 9/8/08 that government was taking over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Received a call on Wednesday morning (9/10/08) government stop paying dividend. Rashid indicated I was in a long list of ML customers they had to contact who have these preferred in their portfolio. The advantage of having a last name starts in Y, I was one of the last to be contacted. He would like to know what action I would take. I indicated I would like to speak with other ML clients before making a decision. He deferred the client contact to senior financial advisor. Received a phone call from senior advisor on Thursday p.m. (9/11/08) to set up an appointment on Tuesday (9/16/08) to discuss investment in my account. No customer contact referral was given nor mentioned. Met with Chase JP Morgan Financial Advisor on Thursday, 9/11/08 and he did not realize until our meeting that I had Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae investment in my holdings. Spoke with Rashid on Friday, 9/12 and received confirmation government decided to honor the dividend payment on Fannie Mae but Freddie Mac will not pay future dividend. Place a sell order to sell all Freddie Mac preferred stock shares because stock prices are steadily dropping.

Lost $15,300 in Fidelity Account, approximately $10K in Merrill Lynch Account pending sales and $8,342.86 on Chase JPMorgan Account.

I had a 401K account with Merrill Lynch for about 6 years will I changed jobs and cashed out about $3,000 from the fund and opened a money market account for the remaing money which was about $650.00. well it took about a month to get my orginal check and because of money problems this year I decided to close my account and withdrwal the remaing funds and Merrill Lynch lost my check twice in the mail. so I finally was able to get them to wire the funds into my checking account. I have been waiting for three days and have not recived the funds.

Having to borrow money from my family

We were in the process of trying to get funding for the building of our new home. My mother suggested that instead of using capital, we should use Merrill Lynchs product called the parent power pledge. This would allow us to use my mothers capital to acquire a construction loan and allow us to have our assets free to use as necessary.

We had a conference call with Merrill Lynchs mortgage loan officers, and asked all the questions that we could think of, there were actually two different conference calls that involved everyone that would be affected. After the conference calls, we decided that we would use the program and spent every waking moment getting all the required documents to the mortgage company. We were assigned to Sydney P. My wife made it a point to contact Sydney every day to check on the status of our loan, most of the time, my wife could not contact her, nor leave a message on voicemail- she had none. I tried to email her everyday as well. My wife and I have over 50 emails from her. In the course of the emails and conversations, we found that she would consistently didnt know her job and would make it a point to confuse us, as this is how we felt. She would tell my wife one thing, and then send me an email telling me something else.

Over the course of a month, we were told that we were approved for the construction of our house which would be located on a private airpark. In the beginning, I sent to her all of the restrictive convenants of the airpark. In addition, I also sent her the contact information of us, the builder, airpark VP and everything and anything that she needed.

About a week before we were to close on the construction loan with Merrill Lynch, I got a phone call from Sydney stating that there was a clause in the covenants that stated:

This is what I got. The state of Texas is a right to own state. It is simply a matter of requesting that you live here, and the airpark association can not deny you from living there. Well, it seems that their lawyers thought the other way. I had two attorneys review what was written and they both came back with the same opinion.

Please reflect again upon the wording and I think you will see that it is hardly perilous to the lender and is in keeping with custom and habit.

I am not upset with process. What I am upset about is the fact that they could have told us a month earlier that they would not be able to fund our construction loan because this was a special case- ie: living on a private airpark. I would have been happy to say thanks?
and move on to someone else. What upsets me the most, was my wife and I were constantly lied to and promised something that was really never there. Then we were lied to that Sydney was removed from the process and actually still working on it.

In the end, I spoke with my money. I am in the process of moving my money to another institution.

At ~1000 hrs. (cst) on 6/4/08, I initiated a sell of stable value fund to purchase DuPont Stock. When I do this, I check the web site for posting of this buy. Merrill-Lynch did not purchase the stock on the day that I initiated the buy, but instead waited until 6/5/08 when the stock was rising. Since I placed my order early enough to buy on that day, I expected it to be done.

The stock closed on 6/4/08 at $47.01, and initiating the buy on 6/5/08 gave me a buying price of $47.15. It wasn't a lot of money, but it's the appearance of mis-handling my investments.

I invested in a 401K retirement through my employer, Walmart of Toccoa, GA. I tried to withdraw $6,500 accrued and invested money and close-out the account but was denied withdrawal. Was told I can only withdraw $159.00 for hardship. I don't want hardship; I want to withdraw all monies and close the account. Please assist with withdrawal and closure of account.

I have a margin account with Merrill Lynch and called my broker and told him that I needed a certain amount, he would then be asked to sell the right amount of Merrill Lynch to cover it. He went months without reimbursing the funds charging me interest as well as 19 separate annual account fees (what is the annual part of this?) and there are missing funds over the years from my account including $81 in interest when the funds should have been sold the next business day.

We have had a managed brokerage account with Merrill Lynch for a few years and have been less than satisfied with them. After having $81,000 sitting in our cash management account for several weeks with our broker saying he couldn't find anything to invest it in, we decided to transfer the account to Piper Jaffray in Walker, MN. On May 11, 2006 I took the signed transfer papers to Piper Jaffray and gave them a check for $75,000 from our cash management account to get started on until the balance was transferred over.

Merrill Lynch immediately blocked Internet access to our account and returned the check to Piper Jaffray for nonsufficient funds. As of Friday, the account still wasn't transferred over and we have had no access to our money or information about the account. I find this extremely inappropriate. We should have been allowed to check the progress on the Internet and not denied access until the entire transfer was completed.

We have not had access to our money or information about the account once they found we intended to transfer the account to Piper Jaffray

On February 14, 2006, at 9:24 am, I received a phone call from James S. He called me to compliant about my response to Merrill Lynch's Customer Satisfaction Survey. He stated, while yelling, that he and Ms. G did not appreciated my responses, and that effective immediately he is going to kick me out of Merrill Lynch and close my accounts.

About two weeks prior to this call, Merrill Lynch sent out to all of its clients soliciting a survey concerning the company and its employees performance. I filled out the survey, quite honestly, and the two financial advisors mentioned above became upset and is now conspiring retaliatory actions against me. After complaining to: Jean DeP (whom I filed a complaint on late in 2004, for a total unprofessional manner in which she handle my complaint about my then advisor Robert S, which she stated on the phone Robert is a senior around here, we are not going to do anything to him --- I still have not received a response to either complaint).

Upon my husband's death, March 2002, I applied for a new account number for his IRA in his trust (from IRS) I received the number and all other documents from the IRS and forwarded them to my financial planner at ML. I subsequently received a form from my financial planner's office at ML, but didn't sign it for a while. The form stated that it was a distribution form, so I called the ML office and asked them if this was really the right form and the one that I should sign for just moving the money into the new IRA account number. The persons at the office (financial planner and paper pusher) assured me they used this form for that. Now I also have to add that these people admitted later that they sent me the wrong form and that they didn't know of other forms, and thought this was the right one.

SO upon their recommendation I signed the form and returned it. Subesequently they changed the account and MADE IT A NON-IRA. Now nobody told me about this. I had received the regular monthly statements but I did not examine them every month as to title only that the amounts looked right. Then I get the 1099 and I just about faint. I called the ML planner and he was as surprised as I was. He didn't seem to know about this either. Then I contacted my accountant and tried to work with ML, waited a couple of months, phoning regularly without results.

Then I hired the attorney that had set up the trust fund to begin with and he tried to work with ML to make corrections. Also I need to mention that if someone had told me what happened I could have rolled it into another IRA within 60 days. Now it was almost 12 months and ML isn't making any comments until the attorney contacted them. ML told him that they DO NOT MAKE corrections to fix this mistake, which I clearly see as their fault. They admit that this happened but that I had signed the form and therefore I am stuck with this. The fact that I could have rolled it over into another IRA was ignored.

I am 60 years old, retired. This was to be part of my living expenses. The taxes on this IRA that I owe are $228,000 + $2,500 to the accountant + $$ to attorney. Still waiting to hear from IRS.

I have a small roll-over IRA with Merrill-Lynch. First it was transferred from my local office without notification to me. Second, $15 a quarter was being deducted for low Balance account ($3000). I then attempted to have this account Rolled over to another institution. Twice I have submitted forms, twice new requirements have been added. It has been over six months now and Merrill- Lunch has yet to release MY funds. I wrote a demand tyoe letter a month ago and I have received no response. I want my funds, small though they may be, out of Merrill-Lynch's hands.

I havce been charged $45.00 to continue my account with this co. I have them hold gold coins for me. They lost a suite in the 1980 when they tryed to charge for the holding of the gold coins. They say the $45.00 is proper because I do not have over $20,000.00 invested with them.

I now have to pay this unfair charge and redeem my coins.

Both my wife and I had IRAs at Merrill Lynch. For years I ignored the exorbitant charges that were being leviied on the account. Each year it grew larger and larger. This year I finally had enough and decided that I wasn't going to pay $100 for my IRA and another $100 fro her IRA so I initiated a transfer to Charles Schwab (who charges nothing for our accounts). I purposely allowed two weeks to do this in order to avoid the upcoming charge. Well lo and behold Merrill took its sweet time in executing the transfer to Schwab and missed it by two days... surprise, surprise and each of our accounts were debited for $150 because of this.