Landmark Apartment Trust Equity Institutional, Equity Trust Company Holding investment money hostage Westlake Ohio
When I originally invested, it was in the office of Sterling Trust of San Diego, CA. They are now Western Financial Advisors per my statement.
Received an annual bill from Equity Institutional and called them to let them know I wanted to move my account elsewhere. Equity said I needed to call my advisors to liquidate and there will be a $135 termination fee and they could not provide a number.
I called local number on statement, disconnected. Called 888-827-0261 and spoke with Zach. He informed me that I could not liquidate my asset until there was a "redemption period". Asked when that was and he had no idea and mentioned the owners where "talking about it", and I would be informed in a letter, (if there in fact is one). No real answer. I asked when the last redemption period was, put me on hold and said he could not find that info either.
When I rolled my IRA to this account, I was specifically told that I had to leave the investment in there for 5 years, but could pull it after that period. This is NOT true. They are literally holding my assets hostage!!
Additionally, they charge $75 a year to hold my money. When I rolled my IRA, there was around $500 in a cash account. It was used up in annual fees which were never disclosed.
We need a class action lawyer to get involved here!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Mike
Alabama,Info & help
#2General Comment
Fri, February 20, 2015
Equity Trust handles self directed IRA's. if you were directed to contact your advisor you were probably being instructed to contact your Account designated representative or the Asset provider themselves.
There are a few assets that a self direct IRA company can liquidate for you but majority of assets you have to work with the asset provider directly to have them liqudated. There is very little the IRA custodian can do if there is a delay or problem. If they have alot of clients that hold that asset or have some type of relationship with that provider they can try and reach out to them on your behalf to help the process along. In those situations though there is usually no problem having the asset liquidated to begin with.
The 5 year rule you mention makes it sound like you opened a Roth account. If so even if you are over 59 1/2 if you try to remove funds from a Roth IRA that has been open less tehn 5 years there are tax penalties invovled. This is probably what they were refering too.
You can always submit a request to have the asset distributed to you In-Kind, this would mean that the IRA custodian "distributes" the asset out to you and has it reassigned to be in your name. You would be taxed on the value of the asset distributed to you. They usually require the asset value to be updated within the past 6 months to do an in-kind distribution (this has to do with IRS requirements but it is always in your best interest to have your asset distributed at the most accurate value)
If you instead want to transfer the assets to a new custodian have that custodian send the transfer request to your current custodian for you. They should help you fill out all the needed forms to have the transer completed. your current custodian would usually only require a termination fee and depending on asset type a reregistration fee to cover paperwork, filing and the shipping costs.