[Can I combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge?]

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need403bhelp
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[Can I combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge?]

Post by need403bhelp »

[Moved into a new thread from: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards --admin LadyGeek]

Anyone know if possible two combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge into one account? What about two CMA accounts? If so, how?
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anon_investor
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by anon_investor »

need403bhelp wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 4:43 pm Anyone know if possible two combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge into one account? What about two CMA accounts? If so, how?
No idea, but you should be able to just call them and ask. I have called their CS over the phone, very helpful.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by spammagnet »

need403bhelp wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 4:43 pm Anyone know if possible two combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge into one account? What about two CMA accounts? If so, how?
In short, transfer assets from one to the other and close the empty account.

Tax-deferred accounts must be owned by the same taxpayer to combine assets. For taxable accounts, Merrill may require that they be titled the same, i.e., individual owner vs joint, but you'd have to ask.

For this purpose you can transfer only between like accounts, i.e., traditional IRA, Roth IRA or taxable. An IRA designated as rollover (whether Roth or non-Roth) can be transferred to a non-rollover IRA (of the same type) but you'd lose the ability to roll that into an employer account, if you wanted to do that. You cannot merge a non-rollover IRA into a rollover traditional IRA, as far as I know.

Transfers between like accounts are not a taxable event. You can move assets between unlike accounts but that's not a simple transfer. It would have to be characterized as a contribution, withdrawal or conversion, for tax purposes.

This topic may be better suited for a separate thread.
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Re: [Can I combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge?]

Post by LadyGeek »

^^^ This topic is now a separate thread.

need403bhelp - Also be sure that both IRA accounts are titled to the same person. There's no such thing as a "jointly held" IRA. It's to that person, and that person only - regardless of marital status.
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need403bhelp
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by need403bhelp »

spammagnet wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 5:32 pm
need403bhelp wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 4:43 pm Anyone know if possible two combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge into one account? What about two CMA accounts? If so, how?
In short, transfer assets from one to the other and close the empty account.

Tax-deferred accounts must be owned by the same taxpayer to combine assets. For taxable accounts, Merrill may require that they be titled the same, i.e., individual owner vs joint, but you'd have to ask.

For this purpose you can transfer only between like accounts, i.e., traditional IRA, Roth IRA or taxable. An IRA designated as rollover (whether Roth or non-Roth) can be transferred to a non-rollover IRA (of the same type) but you'd lose the ability to roll that into an employer account, if you wanted to do that. You cannot merge a non-rollover IRA into a rollover traditional IRA, as far as I know.

Transfers between like accounts are not a taxable event. You can move assets between unlike accounts but that's not a simple transfer. It would have to be characterized as a contribution, withdrawal or conversion, for tax purposes.

This topic may be better suited for a separate thread.
Ok, thank you so much. Do you know if there is any fee to close the empty account ?
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by spammagnet »

need403bhelp wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:36 amOk, thank you so much. Do you know if there is any fee to close the empty account ?
I was charged $49.95 but my account was closed as a result of transferring to another broker. I suspect they would not charge you for consolidating accounts within Merrill, but you'd have to ask.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by ee22bee »

need403bhelp wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:36 am Ok, thank you so much. Do you know if there is any fee to close the empty account ?
In my experience, no fee to close empty account. But did have to call in (wait on hold) to close and to hide from view.

I did this in 2021, so no experience yet in terms of whether the year-end 1099 will show up online or if they'll mail a paper 1099 for the closed account.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by need403bhelp »

jljl222 wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 2:26 pm
need403bhelp wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:36 am Ok, thank you so much. Do you know if there is any fee to close the empty account ?
In my experience, no fee to close empty account. But did have to call in (wait on hold) to close and to hide from view.

I did this in 2021, so no experience yet in terms of whether the year-end 1099 will show up online or if they'll mail a paper 1099 for the closed account.
Ok, I see. Thank you so much for sharing your experience, I really appreciate it.
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Re: [Can I combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge?]

Post by secondcor521 »

The one case where I think it is not allowed is if one Roth IRA is a regular Roth IRA and the other IRA is an inherited Roth IRA (or even less common, two inherited Roth IRAs inherited from two different decedents). Probably a corner case but maybe worth mentioning.
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Re: [Can I combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge?]

Post by need403bhelp »

secondcor521 wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 7:28 pm The one case where I think it is not allowed is if one Roth IRA is a regular Roth IRA and the other IRA is an inherited Roth IRA (or even less common, two inherited Roth IRAs inherited from two different decedents). Probably a corner case but maybe worth mentioning.
Got it. Not our situation but thanks so much.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by langelgjm »

spammagnet wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 5:32 pm An IRA designated as rollover (whether Roth or non-Roth) can be transferred to a non-rollover IRA (of the same type) but you'd lose the ability to roll that into an employer account, if you wanted to do that. You cannot merge a non-rollover IRA into a rollover traditional IRA, as far as I know.
I believe the bolded part is not technically correct, though many people seem to think this is a hard and fast rule. As far as I know the issue with rolling over a contributory IRA to an employer's qualified plan is not that IRS doesn't allow it, but that many employer plans do not allow it. See this source, for example.

As with many questions in this area, it really depends on the specific plan.
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Re: Bank of America/Merrill Edge - Preferred Rewards

Post by Lyrrad »

langelgjm wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 6:52 am
spammagnet wrote: Tue Jan 18, 2022 5:32 pm An IRA designated as rollover (whether Roth or non-Roth) can be transferred to a non-rollover IRA (of the same type) but you'd lose the ability to roll that into an employer account, if you wanted to do that. You cannot merge a non-rollover IRA into a rollover traditional IRA, as far as I know.
I believe the bolded part is not technically correct, though many people seem to think this is a hard and fast rule. As far as I know the issue with rolling over a contributory IRA to an employer's qualified plan is not that IRS doesn't allow it, but that many employer plans do not allow it. See this source, for example.

As with many questions in this area, it really depends on the specific plan.
My employer's plan accepts (pre-tax) rollovers from any Traditional IRA.

I don't believe that any 401k plan is allowed to accept any rollovers from Roth IRA.
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Re: [Can I combine two Roth IRA accounts held at Merrill Edge?]

Post by langelgjm »

Lyrrad wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 10:04 am My employer's plan accepts (pre-tax) rollovers from any Traditional IRA.

I don't believe that any 401k plan is allowed to accept any rollovers from Roth IRA.
Yes, the IRS is clear on the latter - you cannot rollover a Roth IRA to a qualified plan (see their rollover chart).

Whether you can rollover a contributory traditional IRA to a qualified plan appears to depend on the plan.

There was a recent discussion about the pros/cons of Solo 401ks vs SEP IRAs, in which a potential "con" for the SEP IRA was that it could complicate future backdoor Roth IRA contributions. But the assumption was that you couldn't roll over the SEP IRA into a qualified plan, which isn't necessarily true. (In fact, SEP IRA to qualified plan rollover is explicitly permitted on the rollover chart).
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