Merrill Edge

[Craigslist]

I made a traditional IRA last night and contributed 6000 from my bank of america linked bank account, then made a roth ira and i don't know how to covert that cash sitting in the traditional ira to the roth. Is it because I transferred cash in 1 day and need to wait? Do i need to buy some sort of fund to convert it and i cant convert cash?

[Dewangski1]

In my experience with Merrill, it takes a few days to clear and appear in the traditional IRA. Once you see it as available, you need to call and perform the conversion. If you have both accounts opened, it should be easy, just provide account numbers and answer a bunch of questions, probably a 15 min. call once you get through.

edited to add: do NOT invest in anything in the traditional IRA. Keep that in cash, convert into Roth, then invest in Roth.

[Nysoz]

Yeah, it's taken up to a week sometimes to get that money to show up before I could do the conversion. Then they make you listen to some recording and you're done.

[Lithium]

With Merrill Edge, it is a bit of a pain. You need to fill out this form from what I remember:

https://olui2.fs.ml.com/publish/cont...ersionForm.pdf

[notanotherusername]

With Merrill Edge, it is a bit of a pain. You need to fill out this form from what I remember:

https://olui2.fs.ml.com/publish/cont...ersionForm.pdf

I converted last week at Edge. It was over the phone. My biggest gripe with them is that they suggest leaving $50 in the T-IRA so the account doesn't automatically close. I contributed 7K to the T-IRA 1/2021 online. Then called a few days later to convert $6950 to R-IRA, leaving $50 in T-IRA until December. Called again to convert the $50 last week (no interest this year of course). T-IRA account won't close as will have zero balance for only 2 weeks as will repeat the cycle in early January.

[Nysoz]

Yeah I've always done mine over the phone and converted it all. I just have to reopen new IRAs every year.

[Craigslist]

Ya the money showed up instantly because I have linked bank accounts and platinum honors(I don’t know if this contributes). Thanks everyone I’ll call them again, I tried calling them yesterday and was on hold for 35mins before I gave up.

[djw1720]

I just did mine thru ML the other day. Took 2 days for funds to be transferred from bank to traditional. Then did the conversion online by going to the ‘help’ tab, then forms and documents. In forms and documents I typed IRA conversion in the search box and the first option that showed up was Roth IRA conversion form. Filled out the form and it took 2-3 days for the conversion to show on my online account.

[CordMcNally]

I’d probably suggest a different brokerage if some of these issues are real.

[MaxPower]

For all of the angst that Vanguard causes some people, the process sounds way easier there. Contribute to tIRA, wait a few days for the funds to be available, then convert online by clicking one button. Repeat next year without having to open a new tIRA. Takes 2-3 minutes, tops, and the best part is I never even have to speak to a human.

[childay]

For all of the angst that Vanguard causes some people, the process sounds way easier there. Contribute to tIRA, wait a few days for the funds to be available, then convert online by clicking one button. Repeat next year without having to open a new tIRA. Takes 2-3 minutes, tops, and the best part is I never even have to speak to a human.

Those ************************ humans..

[treedoc4]

We just went through the same process with Merrill last week. Converted non-deductible IRA money that my wife had from past years to Roth. They also suggested leaving some money in the account to keep the tIRA open as previously mentioned. The tIRA now has $100 left after converting the rest. Is that $100 going to cause any problems or significant hassles going forward? I may still be able to call and convert that portion (which would close the account) if needed.

[GasFIRE]

We just went through the same process with Merrill last week. Converted non-deductible IRA money that my wife had from past years to Roth. They also suggested leaving some money in the account to keep the tIRA open as previously mentioned. The tIRA now has $100 left after converting the rest. Is that $100 going to cause any problems or significant hassles going forward? I may still be able to call and convert that portion (which would close the account) if needed.

The only issue with the $100 left in the tIRA is you will owe a small amount of tax due to the pro-rata rule. You can lower it even more to the level of rounding error if you can keep the account open with just $1 left in the account. Makes me appreciate Fidelity which asks you when you convert if you’d like to keep your tIRA account open with $0.