Merrill Fax Numbers by Document Type

Which Merrill line you need

Merrill does not publish a general customer-service fax. The Merrill Edge contact page lists none. What Merrill publishes is a routing rule: a named form goes to Document Processing at (877) 229-7160, a document that is not a form goes to (866) 994-7807, and the Address Verification Letter of Authorization goes to its own line, (866) 356-7937.

Merrill states the consequence of getting this wrong on the forms themselves: if forms are sent to the wrong channel, processing is not guaranteed. That is worth taking literally.

These numbers cover Merrill Edge Self-Directed and Merrill Guided Investing. If you work with a Merrill Lynch Wealth Management advisor, your paperwork goes to your advisor’s branch, and the branch fax is one your advisor gives you. Merrill does not publish branch fax numbers.

What people fax to Merrill

The forms that name a fax destination are the ones that move money or change who controls an account:

• IRA, IRRA, Roth, SEP and SRA one-time distribution requests
• Beneficiary distribution and substantially equal periodic payment forms
• Beneficiary designation changes
• Power of attorney agent profiles and online-access authorizations
• Funds Transfer Service enrollment and bank retirement account transfers
• Inherited-asset packages: death certificate, tax waiver, change of address
• Cost basis updates and information-change letters of authorization

An inherited-asset package with a death certificate and letters testamentary usually runs six to ten pages, which is past the free monthly allowance and inside one credit pack.

These lines take documents in, they do not answer

Merrill’s fax lines are document intake. Pages arrive at Document Processing, a person works the queue, and Merrill responds in your account, by mail, or by phone. Nothing comes back by fax and there is no fax acknowledgment.

The delivery receipt is what fills that gap. FaxTerra records the moment the receiving machine accepted the pages, with the time and page count, and that receipt is the record to keep while a distribution or an estate transfer is processing.

Verify the number before you send

• Read the fax number off the Merrill form you downloaded. Merrill prints it in the return-instructions block, and that printed number is the one for that form.
• Decide whether you are sending a named form or a general document, because they go to different lines.
• If you have a Merrill Lynch advisor, ask the advisor for the branch fax rather than using a published Merrill Edge number.
• Never fax wire instructions, a full bank routing and account pair, or login credentials. A sent fax cannot be recalled.

How to fax Merrill without a fax machine

Create a free FaxTerra account with an email address, upload the signed form as a PDF or as photos from your phone, enter the Merrill number for what you are sending, and send. Delivery confirmation arrives by email.

A short form sends free within your monthly free pages. A distribution or estate packet is covered by a one-time credit pack from about 10¢ a page, and the Starter plan at $4.99 a month includes 50 pages for repeat senders. See how to send a fax for accepted files and page limits, faxing financial documents for the wider process, and the Charles Schwab guide if you are transferring an account between the two.