Complain about a product or service

Merrill-Lynch

Dawn of Davison, MI August 19, 2009

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.

Stein of Brownsburg, IN July 16, 2009

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!

Shelby of Hilton Head, SC July 23, 2009

We(my partner and I) opened a Merrill Lynch account in May 2008 with ms peacock with 300,000.00 in November of 08 we had to move back to hilton Head SC and during that time there was little or no communictation from this firm. As we were getting moved in, approx. Feburary or March of 09 we started getting returned checks from all our credit card companies although we have statements saying that we had over 75,000.00 in our account at that time. then this whole thing began to snowball, each time we tried to pay our checks with merrill lych they all got returned. We are now up to over 85 checks that Merrill Lynch has bounced on us and they are taking no responsility for this whole fiasco. We have bank charges from Merrill Lynch, we have late fee charges from the credit card companies and bank charges.

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

William of Foley, AL June 3, 2009

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.

Todd of iowa city, IA May 16, 2009

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." I didn't question him any further which was a mistake on my end. The fees I got in the mail totaled over 530 dollars for the 8 stocks and that is not including the 5.35 processing fees for each one. I wasn't happy to see that and questioned why he would withhold information from me that if I knew it, I would switch to ameritrade immediately. It is in my honest opinion he took advantage and did NOT have my best interests in mind, but his! THEN I sold the stocks 3 weeks later just to take profits off the table and switch to ameritrade. I then look and see on the trade confirmations that I was charged even more money for stocks which by the way I chose on my own, he never gave me any advice and I'm the one who told him the exact portfolio, he just wrote it down and did it. He didn't give me one financial piece of advice.

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.

Lynne of Franklinville, NJ March 12, 2009

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.

Mike of Tempe, AZ March 9, 2009

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,

Karen of Sarasota, FL February 19, 2009

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.

George of Moses Lake, WA February 10, 2009

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.

Mike of Phoenix, AZ January 29, 2009

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.

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