How to Fill Out and Submit the Merrill Lynch 401(k) Rollover Form

To move money with a Merrill Lynch 401(k) rollover form, you first pick the right form for the direction of the transfer, elect a direct trustee-to-trustee rollover, and submit the signed form, the check, and any supporting documentation to the correct address. Choosing the wrong form or the wrong rollover method can trigger a mandatory 20% federal tax withholding and, if you are under 59½ and miss the 60-day redeposit deadline, a 10% early withdrawal penalty on top of ordinary income tax.¹

Pick the Form That Matches Your Direction

There is no single universal Merrill rollover form. Which one you need depends on where the money is coming from and where it is going.

If you are rolling money into a Merrill IRA from a former employer’s plan, use Merrill’s Direct Rollover Delivery Instructions form, sometimes labeled 0791NSB. The form is addressed to your old plan administrator and tells them to send the funds to Merrill. It asks for your Merrill account number, your Social Security number, and the type of account receiving the money: Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, IRRA (Rollover IRA), or SEP IRA.¹

If you are rolling money into a Merrill-administered employer 401(k) from a prior plan or IRA, use the Rollover Contribution Form specific to your current employer’s plan. Three items must be mailed together: the completed and signed form, the rollover check, and documentation from the distributing plan showing the distribution qualifies as an eligible rollover.¹

If you are rolling money out of a Merrill-administered employer 401(k), request a distribution through the Benefits OnLine portal or by calling the dedicated plan service number printed on your statement. The distribution request form varies by employer plan; there is no single version.¹

What to Have in Hand Before You Open the Form

Collecting these items before you start saves a rejected submission and a second trip through the mail:

Your eight-digit Merrill account number. For employer plans, this may instead be a plan-specific participant ID.¹
Your Social Security number, which is required on every rollover form for IRS reporting.¹
The receiving institution’s name, mailing address, and the exact account number where the funds should land, if you are rolling out to another custodian. The receiving institution can supply a letter of acceptance confirming it will accept the rollover.¹
The account type at the destination: Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, another 401(k), or a 403(b). Picking the wrong type on the form can create a taxable event.¹
The dollar amount or percentage, if you are rolling over only part of the balance.¹

Before the former employer releases funds, the plan administrator must give you a written explanation of your rollover options, called a 402(f) notice or “special tax notice.” It is required by law and spells out the tax consequences of a direct rollover, an indirect rollover, and leaving the money in the plan. Read it; it is specific to your plan.¹

Elect a Direct Rollover, Not an Indirect One

The most consequential box on the form is the one that distinguishes a direct rollover from an indirect rollover.

A direct rollover sends the money straight from the distributing plan to the receiving institution. The check is made payable to the new custodian, not to you. No federal tax is withheld, and the money never passes through your hands. For funds coming into Merrill, the check must be made payable to “Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated as custodian FBO [Your Name]” along with your eight-digit Merrill account number.¹

An indirect rollover sends a check to you personally. Federal law requires the plan to withhold 20% of the taxable portion for federal income tax, which goes straight to the IRS. You then have 60 calendar days to deposit the full original amount, including the 20% that was withheld, into an eligible retirement account. If you deposit less, or miss the deadline, the shortfall is a taxable distribution; if you are under 59½, you also owe a 10% early withdrawal penalty.¹

The arithmetic is unforgiving. On a $100,000 balance taken as an indirect rollover, the check in your hand is $80,000. To avoid tax on the full amount, you must deposit $100,000 into the new IRA within 60 days, which means covering the $20,000 withheld from other savings. You recover the $20,000 later as a tax refund, but the cash flow hit is real in the meantime.¹

Where to Send the Paperwork and the Check

For money coming into a Merrill IRA, mail the completed Direct Rollover Delivery Instructions form to your former employer’s plan administrator, since the form itself authorizes them to release the funds. The rollover check and any accompanying securities should be sent to Merrill at:¹

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Building 600, FL9-600-2B-00
9000 Southside Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32256

Checks should be made payable to “Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated as custodian FAO/FBO [Your Name and 8-digit Merrill account number].” If the check does not include both your name and your account number, Merrill may not be able to credit it.¹

For distributions out of a Merrill-administered employer plan, many plans accept the request through Benefits OnLine, where you can upload scanned PDFs. If your plan does not support digital submission, mail the signed distribution form to the address printed in your plan’s specific documents; it varies by employer.¹

When You Need a Medallion Signature Guarantee

If you are transferring securities, rather than cash, out of a Bank of America or Merrill account to an external institution, you may need a medallion signature guarantee on the paperwork. Bank of America does not provide this guarantee for assets leaving its own accounts, so you will need to get it from a third party not involved in the transfer, or from the firm receiving the assets. Banks, credit unions, and broker-dealers that participate in a medallion program can stamp the form. Call first to confirm the service is available before you make the trip.¹

Situations That Change the Paperwork

Company Stock in the 401(k)

If your 401(k) holds employer stock that has appreciated significantly, rolling the shares into an IRA can be the wrong move. The net unrealized appreciation (NUA) strategy lets you pay ordinary income tax on only the original cost basis now, then pay long-term capital gains rates on all the appreciation when you later sell, regardless of how long you hold the shares after distribution. The NUA portion is also exempt from the 10% early withdrawal penalty regardless of your age.¹

To qualify, you must take a lump-sum distribution of your entire account balance within a single tax year, and the stock must be distributed in kind as actual shares into a taxable brokerage account, not sold and converted to cash. If you instead roll the stock into an IRA, every dollar comes out as ordinary income when you eventually withdraw it. For low-basis, highly appreciated stock, the difference can be tens of thousands of dollars, and this is one situation where talking to a tax professional before you sign the form is worth the fee.¹

Roth 401(k) Money

Designated Roth 401(k) money can be rolled directly into a Roth IRA with no immediate tax, since both accounts hold after-tax contributions. The IRS requires that any nontaxable amounts in the Roth 401(k) move by direct trustee-to-trustee transfer; the 60-day indirect method is not available for those portions.¹

Time spent in the Roth 401(k) does not carry over to the Roth IRA’s five-year aging clock. If you have never held a Roth IRA before, the clock starts on the rollover date, and you would need to wait five years and be at least 59½ before withdrawals of earnings are fully tax-free.¹

An Outstanding 401(k) Loan

If you have an unpaid loan against the 401(k) when you leave the employer, the plan typically offsets the remaining loan balance against your account. That offset is treated as an actual distribution and is normally taxable. When the offset happens because you left your job or the plan terminated, it qualifies as a “qualified plan loan offset” (QPLO), and you get until your tax filing deadline for that year, including extensions, to roll it over, rather than the usual 60 days. In practice that is April 15 of the following year, extendable to October 15. You contribute cash equal to the offset amount into an IRA to make yourself whole.¹

One useful detail: if the only non-direct-rollover portion of your distribution is a plan loan offset, the plan is not required to withhold the 20%, because there is no cash to withhold from.¹

Divorce

Dividing a 401(k) in divorce requires a Qualified Domestic Relations Order, a court order separate from the divorce decree that must be drafted, signed by a judge, and formally approved by the plan administrator. Without an approved QDRO, the plan cannot distribute any portion of the account to the ex-spouse, and any attempt to do so would be treated as a taxable distribution to the employee.¹

Once the QDRO is approved, the alternate payee can elect a direct rollover of their share into their own IRA. A lump-sum cash distribution under a QDRO is subject to ordinary income tax but is exempt from the 10% early withdrawal penalty, one of the few penalty exceptions specific to QDRO distributions. QDROs apply only to employer-sponsored plans; IRAs are divided through a “transfer incident to divorce” under Section 408(d)(6), which does not require a court order sent to a plan administrator.¹

What the Plan Will Not Roll Over

Some amounts in a 401(k) are not eligible, and submitting a rollover request for them will come back rejected:¹

Required minimum distributions. Once you reach age 73 (the current RMD starting age through 2032 under the SECURE 2.0 Act), the portion of a distribution that satisfies your annual RMD cannot be rolled over; the plan must distribute the RMD for the year before rolling the rest.¹
Hardship distributions, which cannot be put back.¹
Substantially equal periodic payments, sometimes called 72(t) payments.¹
Defaulted plan loans treated as deemed distributions, with the QPLO exception above.¹
Corrective distributions returned to comply with discrimination testing or contribution limits.¹

After You Submit

Review and processing typically take one to three weeks, depending on the plan and whether anything on the form needs correction. The administrator will verify your identity, confirm the account details, and, if you are rolling out, liquidate your investments before issuing the transfer.¹

Direct rollover funds move straight to the receiving institution, either by check made payable to the new custodian “for the benefit of” you, or electronically through ACH or wire. Watch your new account for the deposit and confirm the amount matches what you expected.¹

You will receive IRS Form 1099-R from the distributing plan for the tax year of the distribution. A direct rollover is reported with distribution code “G” in Box 7, which signals to the IRS that no tax is due. Keep the form with your tax records; you will need it when you file, even though a properly coded direct rollover adds nothing to your taxable income.¹

If you took an indirect rollover and the 60-day window slips for reasons outside your control, the IRS allows self-certification under Revenue Procedure 2020-46. You certify in writing to the receiving plan or IRA trustee that you qualify for a waiver, and you must complete the rollover within 30 days after the qualifying reason no longer prevents you from doing so. Keep a copy of the certification; the IRS can challenge it on audit.¹

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