How to Complete and Mail the Bank of America IRA Rollover Form

To move retirement money into a Bank of America IRA, you complete the Bank of America IRA rollover form, officially called the Trustee Transfer/Direct Rollover Request, and mail it to the bank’s processing center in Texas. You can pick up the form at any banking center or download the PDF from Bank of America’s website and secure document center after logging in. There is no online upload option. Gather your information before you start, because a new IRA opened to receive the rollover will be canceled if the funds don’t arrive within 90 days.¹

Choose a Direct Rollover, Not an Indirect One

The form is built around a direct rollover, also called a trustee-to-trustee transfer. The money moves straight from your old plan or IRA custodian to Bank of America. No taxes are withheld and you never touch the funds. This is what most people should choose.

An indirect rollover means your old provider sends a check to you. If the distribution comes from an employer plan such as a 401(k), the plan must withhold 20 percent for federal income tax before cutting the check.² You then have 60 days to deposit the full original amount into your new IRA.³ You would have to make up the withheld 20 percent from your own pocket to keep the rollover whole. A shortfall or a missed 60-day deadline turns the gap into taxable income, plus a possible 10 percent early withdrawal penalty if you’re under 59½.⁴

Choose the direct rollover and skip the drama.

What to Have Ready Before You Start

The form asks for the following, so pull it together first:

Your full legal name, Social Security number, and date of birth.
Your current mailing and physical addresses. If they differ (a P.O. box, for example), you enter both.
Your citizenship status: U.S. citizen, resident alien, non-resident alien, or dual.
Employer, occupation, and primary source of income (employment, retirement, investment, and so on).
The sending institution’s name and mailing address. This is the company currently holding your funds: the old 401(k) provider, the IRA custodian you’re leaving, or a former employer’s plan administrator.
Your account number at the sending institution.
The plan type you’re rolling from. The form lists Traditional IRA, Rollover IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, Coverdell Education Savings Account, and Qualified Retirement Plan (pension, profit sharing, 401(k), Roth 401(k)).¹
The dollar amount or asset selection. You can roll all assets or a partial amount; for brokerage IRAs you specify all cash, partial cash, all assets, or partial assets by dollar amount.¹
A government-issued photo ID, including type, number, issuing authority, and expiration date.

A recent statement from your old account isn’t listed as a form requirement, but keep one within reach. It confirms the account number, exact plan type, and approximate balance, all of which you’re about to write down.

Filling Out the Six Sections

The form is organized into six numbered sections.

Section 1: Customer Information

Full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, mailing and physical addresses, citizenship status, employer, occupation, primary source of income, and daytime and evening phone numbers. There is also a question about whether you hold a political position. Answer honestly and move on.

Section 2: Existing Institution Information

The name and mailing address of the financial institution or employer currently holding the money. Match what appears on your account statement so Bank of America can contact them cleanly.

Sections 3 and 4: Transfer and Rollover Instructions

Section 3 covers a trustee-to-trustee transfer. Select the plan type (Traditional, Rollover, Roth, SEP, Coverdell ESA, or Qualified Retirement Plan) and enter the account number at the sending institution. Section 4 covers direct rollover instructions specifically: plan type, all assets or a partial amount, and any special liquidation instructions such as holding a CD to maturity before transfer.

Fill out whichever section applies. A transfer between two IRAs uses Section 3. A direct rollover from an employer plan into your Bank of America IRA uses Section 4. If you’re unsure, a banking center associate or the IRA support line at 888.827.1812 can walk you through it.⁵

Section 5: Bank of America Plan/Account

Tell Bank of America where the money should land. Select the IRA type (Traditional, Roth, Rollover, SEP, or Coverdell) and either provide an existing account number or indicate you’re opening a new one. New accounts include a Money Market IRA, a variable-rate account, or a fixed-term CD. If you’re splitting the rollover across products, use the percentage allocation fields. Bank of America’s savings IRAs are FDIC insured; investment IRAs through Merrill Edge hold stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds.⁶

Section 6: Customer’s Acceptance

Read the terms, then sign and date. Your signature authorizes Bank of America to act as successor custodian and instructs the old provider to release the funds. Enter your government-issued ID details. Sign exactly as your name appears on the account; a signature mismatch will bounce the form. The bottom of this section has space for a Medallion Signature Guarantee stamp, which the bank uses internally. You generally don’t need to obtain one yourself for an incoming rollover.⁷

Where to Mail the Completed Form

The completed form goes to Bank of America’s centralized processing center. The form instructions list only physical mail addresses.

Regular mail: Bank of America, N.A., TX2-979-02-14, P.O. Box 619040, Dallas, TX 75261-9943
Overnight delivery (FedEx, UPS): Bank of America, N.A., TX2-979-02-14, 4500 Amon Carter Blvd, Fort Worth, TX 76155

Overnight delivery gives you a tracking number, which is worth the cost for a document carrying your Social Security number and retirement instructions. If your old provider is sending a check with the form or separately, it should be made payable to “Bank of America, N.A. for the benefit of [your name]” as indicated on the form.¹

If you’re rolling into a Merrill Edge investment IRA rather than a Bank of America savings IRA, the process is different. Merrill offers an online transfer tool once your account is open, or you can call a Merrill rollover specialist at 888.637.3343.⁸

Distributions You Can’t Roll Over

Not every dollar leaving a retirement account is eligible. Knowing what’s excluded keeps you from requesting a transfer the receiving IRA can’t legally accept.

Required minimum distributions. If RMDs apply to your age, the annual RMD portion must be distributed to you as income and cannot be rolled over.⁹
Hardship distributions from a 401(k) or 403(b).⁹
Excess contributions and related earnings returned by corrective distribution.
Substantially equal periodic payments from a plan.

If your account holds both eligible and ineligible amounts, ask the old plan administrator to separate them before distribution. Rolling over an ineligible amount creates an excess contribution in the new IRA, which draws a 6 percent penalty tax for each year it stays there.¹⁰

The One-Rollover-Per-Year Rule

The IRS limits you to one indirect (60-day) rollover from an IRA to another IRA in any 12-month period. This applies across all your IRAs combined: Traditional, Roth, SEP, and SIMPLE aggregated together. A second indirect rollover inside that window turns the distributed amount into taxable income, plus a possible 10 percent early withdrawal penalty.¹⁰

Direct trustee-to-trustee transfers don’t count as “rollovers” for this rule and are exempt. So are rollovers from employer plans (401(k), 403(b), governmental 457(b)) to IRAs, IRA-to-plan rollovers, and Traditional-to-Roth conversions. Another reason to use the direct option on the form.¹⁰

If the Destination Is a Roth IRA

Rolling pre-tax money from a Traditional IRA or 401(k) into a Roth IRA at Bank of America adds the converted amount to your taxable income for the year. You owe income tax on it now; qualified withdrawals later come out tax-free. Roth conversions are irrevocable once completed.

Watch the pro-rata rule if you hold multiple Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRAs with a mix of pre-tax and after-tax contributions. The IRS looks at all those balances together as of December 31 of the conversion year. You can’t cherry-pick only the after-tax dollars. Each distribution is treated as containing a proportional share of taxable and nontaxable funds.¹¹

If you’re under 59½, each Roth conversion starts its own five-year clock. Withdrawing converted funds before that clock runs out can trigger the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty on the taxable portion. Earnings in the Roth follow a separate five-year rule tied to your first Roth contribution of any kind.

After You Submit

Bank of America does not publish a specific processing timeline on the form. Expect at least a few business days for verification with the sending institution, plus more time if the processing team finds missing information. The form’s fine print notes that a new IRA opened for the rollover may be canceled if funds don’t arrive within 90 days. Watch your online banking for the deposit and call 888.827.1812 if you don’t see movement within two to three weeks.⁵

Two tax forms document the move. Your old provider issues a Form 1099-R for the distribution. On a direct rollover, box 2a (taxable amount) should show zero and box 7 should carry distribution code G, which tells the IRS the money went straight to another retirement account.¹² Bank of America, as receiving custodian, files a Form 5498 showing the rollover contribution in box 2.¹³ Keep both with your tax records. If the 1099-R doesn’t match what actually happened, ask the old provider for a corrected form before you file.

Also request a final statement from the old institution showing a zero balance or the exact amount transferred out. It’s your backup if the 1099-R and 5498 amounts don’t reconcile later, and it’s easy to get at closing but nearly impossible to recreate years down the line.

1
Bank of America. Trustee Transfer/Direct Rollover Request
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 3405 – Special Rules for Pensions, Annuities, and Certain Other Deferred Income
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 402 – Taxability of Beneficiary of Employees Trust
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 72 – Annuities; Certain Proceeds of Endowment and Life Insurance Contracts
5
Bank of America. Bank of America CDs and IRAs Customer Service
6
Bank of America. Individual Retirement Accounts
7
Bank of America. Medallion Signature Guarantee
8
Merrill Edge. Rollover IRA: How to Roll Over Your 401(k) to an IRA
9
Internal Revenue Service. Verifying Rollover Contributions to Plans
10
Internal Revenue Service. Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions
11
Internal Revenue Service. Rollovers of After-Tax Contributions in Retirement Plans
12
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498
13
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 5498, IRA Contribution Information