Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Advisor Thomas McConnell

Absolutely worse brokerage I've ever dealt with. My employer's stock grants were held there. I've been trying for 2 months to get them to mail be a check for my cash balance since I left my employer. And every time they cancel the check with no notification or reason. The customer service reps are unhelpful and clueless. Nothing can be done online. Everything requires a phone call and 10 million forms. Everything comes with fees. Trying now to explain to a customer service rep why they shouldn't charge me for a wire transfer when its their issue that they have been unable to mail a check after issueing 6 requests over 2 months. No a wire transfer does... read full review

So I was tired of getting 0% on my cash. I went to ML asking for an investment targeting the Dow with a weighting toward dividends. I hoped to watch this for 5 to 10 years so I'd know it would be right for retirement. I emphasized this was to be "safe" money focused on the Dow. They invested me in a dividend focused fund and explained it was focused on the Dow. After 3 years of under-performance by as much as 15%, I asked why they were not tracking the Dow. They explained they put me into a dividend maximizing fund and NOT a Dow focused dividend weighted fund. I took them to small claims court. They said I should not have trusted my advisor. It was up to... read full review

The Cambridge Merrill Lynch Office is not one I would consider to manage money. My experience was fuzzy information, an uncomfortable feeling about the safety of my retirement funds. Monthly reports for a conservative strategy showed spikes, some up and some down, that were out of sync with what was planned for a low annual return in the 2% to 4% range. Lots of talk about technology driven money management, at the end of the day the talk didn't end up with a positive experience.