Okay, this is a first world problem. I know that.
My dad recently passed away. He had a significant IRA at Merrill Lynch and I am inheriting a portion of it. Having met his broker there and watched how poorly they managed his money* over the years, I really want nothing to do with them. I am working with Vanguard to roll the money into an inherited IRA there. Vanguard is requiring me to have ML open an inherited account in my name, then transfer the money -- as opposed to just rolling my share of the account directly to Vanguard.
In setting the account up, the ML forms ask all sorts of marketing questions that I think are none of their business: My income, my net worth, amount I owe on my house, my tax bracket, etc. I refused the questions and told them it wasn't any of their business. They are only opening an inherited IRA that contains a money market account and keeping that account open for a few days until it can be transferred.
ML WILL NOT open an account without this data. They say it's required data. Is there any chance in hell this is actually required by anything other than their marketing department? I'm tempted to just lie and say "zero" for everything. I've had a number of brokerage accounts over the years and I don't remember answering this... but... I also have a TERRIBLE memory.
*I say "managed poorly"... and maybe that is too harsh. He had multiple brokers over the years rip him off and they never did that. They just did a huge amount of hand waving/trading/feel good meetings (and I expect significant management fees) and didn't really grow his account as much as I would have expected them to.
