Merrill Reviews

I recommend that anyone who has set up their affairs and used a lawyer to set up a POA never use Merrill. My father went to a top trustee lawyer and assigned me, his daughter as executor and POA. He has a small IRA at Merrill and when we wanted to transfer the IRA to another institution, they locked the account even after sending all forms and documents to their POA department in Florida. The documents were sent multiple times and were signed for and each time they lied and said they never received them. I recommend NEVER to trust your money with them as they are unethical in their behavior and tactics. FINSTRA was of no help. So in other words, they are stealing money from their clients.

The worst service ever, online issues with accounts and login issues, unable to trade online, so I had call and was on the phone for over an hour. Not to mention that every time I spoke to someone, I was misinformed about various things. Horrible experience, extremely frustrating.

So recently I run across a Bio Tech stock that I want to trade. Goes from $8 PS to $65 in under an hour. I put in Buy at $31. Says Can't Complete Transaction Online Must Call. 17 minutes to get to the trading desk! Stock already dropped below my buy in to $30.50!! While on the phone with trading specialist discussing why I can no longer self-direct my own account, I'm told Merrill is now a conservative platform!! What a joke! What they mean is they no longer want us regular traders to make money like they do. Dumping Merrill and BOA!! 40-year relationship down the drain. BOA no longer cares about their customers' best interests!! That should have been obvious when Bank of America voluntarily provided the FBI with a list of customers who made credit or debit card transactions in the Washington, D.C., area around the time of the January 6, 2021 without a subpoena!!!

I’ve had an extremely disappointing experience with Merrill Lynch’s 401(k) services. The customer service is poor, and the wait times for hardship withdrawals are excessively long. What’s worse, there’s no communication when withdrawal requests are denied—no explanation, no outreach, nothing. When my request was denied, I received no communication explaining why—despite their stated policy that “you will receive a communication with the specific reason your request was not approved.” The denial reason, buried in the portal, stated: “Your request cannot be processed because your financial need does not satisfy a qualified hardship reason under your plan's rules and the IRS regulations or the documentation you provided was not sufficient.” Yet no one reached out to clarify what was missing or offer help.

I was lured to transfer my account from another brokerage to Merrill Lynch because of their lucrative offer when transferring various levels of securities' worth. It began in the fall of 2024, but because if Merrill's anal requirements, this didn't occur until March 2025. At first, my advisor, Malcolm A. seemed to know what he was doing with one of my accounts, but the horrors began with his attempting to transfer my IRA account, which he attributed to some fraud alert on my account transfer. So, I asked him for a written response to that alleged issue, and at first he said that Merrill would not do that, but I insisted, and told him in firm terms, if not, I would file a complaint with the SEC.

My experience with Merrill was terrible, I was let go from my company which used Merrill. I asked them to liquidate the shares I had in the company and the account information to send it to. Instead they sent stocks to my bank and they rejected them. Then in my online portal the money was just gone, I was lucky to find one statement that I had to dig for that there was proof of me having those shares. Then, I called them to straighten this out, I was in the phone for 3 hours trying to explain and getting transferred to everyone. They finally tell me I have to reach out to my former company because they have my shares.

We have had Merrill for 14 years. Our investments lost 50% of their value and never rebounded. When we tried to liquidate the assets they locked our account, accused us of fraud and required us to jump through all sorts of identification hoops, only to delay and ultimately refuse to cooperate. We've spoken with three reps all of whom were less than helpful and one who was asked to escalate the call refused. Pretty bad. I'd give them a 0 if I could.

Merrill is a terrible company to rollover retirement funds to. They withhold the rollovered funds for more than a week after the fund deposit before one can starts to invest. They basically make money on your money without allowing you to do anything with the fund. I would not recommend to roll any fund over to Merrill.

If I could give negative stars, I would. Today we were treated like criminals when we wanted to call and ask for advice about taking out our 401K for medical reasons. We were met with rudeness, critical, nasty responses of, "We do not do your taxes." I know you don't do taxes, but on your brochures and all our letters you said to call for advice. If you don't like your job, get a new one. This lady made us feel even more terrible than the day we heard my husband had cancer. Do we want to cash out our 401K-no. Do we have a choice-no. It's either that or not get treatment for my husband who is out of work and will be out of work for several months.

It has been a horrible convoluted process to get my deceased mother’s account transferred to my father’s account. They have not honored my power of attorney and I have had to drag my father who has dementia with me to the bank. We have been told this. We have been told that. We’re in the third month and still no transfer. Still on the phone for hours.