Consumer complaint received 2026-07-02 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Other banking product or service
Issue: Closing an account — Company closed your account
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ

Complaint narrative:
Unilateral Account Closure and Liquidations Without Notice On XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered that my Merrill Lynch XXXX IRA had been completely wiped out and all retirement investments were sold without my authorization or knowledge. Upon contacting a Merrill Lynch XXXX, I was informed that the firm unilaterally liquidated my retirement assets and closed the IRA due to an unfulfilled profile update request from XX/XX/XXXX. Merrill Lynch claims they provided warnings, but their assertions are flatly contradicted by objective data : XXXX Mail : The firm claims they mailed a warning letter, which was never received. My account is explicitly set tXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX for all Statements and Service Notices. Phone Logs : The firm notes making XXXX outbound calls. A direct audit of my cellular provider 's certified call logs shows zero incoming calls from Merrill Lynch during the dates they specified. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : While I consistently track my IRA account value via the XXXX Bank of America portal, no alerts or secure messages were ever pushed to my dashboard to warn me of an impending closure. Furthermore, the XXXX warning emails Merrill claims they sent were completely missed because Merrill routed them from a different, obscure sender email address rather than the standard corporate address used for my routine monthly statements and account notices, causing a severe breakdown in critical communications. Merrill Lynch refused to unwind this administrative error, stating their only remedy is for me to open a new account and manually deposit a physical check they allegedly mailed on XX/XX/XXXX ( which I have still not received ). This forced liquidation creates massive, immediate tax liabilities and financial damages on my retirement earnings. Falsification of Regulatory Trade Coding Furthermore, Merrill Lynch 's automated systems have falsified official regulatory transaction records. On the trade confirmations for the forced liquidations ( including Applied XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX ), the transactions are explicitly stamped as an " UNSOLICITED ORDER '' where " DISCRETION [ WAS ] NOT EXERCISED. '' This is an operational falsehood. I did not request, authorize, or solicit these trades. By marking an administrative forced liquidation as " Unsolicited, '' Merrill Lynch is misclassifying trades to regulators to make it appear as a client-initiated action, obscuring the fact that they seized control of my assets. As a direct result of Merrill Lynch misclassifying these forced liquidations as client-initiated 'Unsolicited Orders, ' my spouse has received a severe professional trading violation from her employer for trading without preclearance. Merrill 's systemic coding error has caused intense personal anxiety and directly threatened my spouse 's employment and professional standing. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- SAMPLE taken from actual trade confirmation Security Description APPLIED DIGITAL CORP ORDERS MAY BE ROUTED TO A MERRILL LYNCHAFFILIATE WHO MAY EXECUTE SUCH ORDERS AS PRINCIPAL OR AGENT ORROUTE ORDERS TO OTHER MARKET CENTERS FOR EXECUTION. EXECUTED 100 % AGENCY. UNSOLICITED ORDER. DISCRETION NOT EXERCISED. ML ACTED AS AGENT. Security Description APPLE INC TRADE AS OF XX/XX/XXXX. ORDERS MAY BE ROUTED TO A MERRILL LYNCHAFFILIATE WHO MAY EXECUTE SUCH ORDERS AS PRINCIPAL OR AGENT ORROUTE ORDERS TO OTHER MARKET CENTERS FOR EXECUTION. CASH TRADE. UNSOLICITED ORDER. ML ACTED AS PRINCIPAL

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation