My wife and I have had a Merrill Lynch XXXX " wrap '' account for about 25 years. My wife also has her own Checking/Savings account at Bank of America, Merrill 's parent. She deposited a check against her B of A account into the Merrill Lynch account at a B of A ATM. One week later, the funds were still not in the ML account. This has never happened before in the many other instances she has done the same exact type of deposit transaction. I asked her to check her B of A account activity and, sure enough, her balance was lower by the amount of the check ( {$1500.00} XXXX. I called ML 's customer service rep and was told that checks can " take up to 8 days to clear '' and appear in the account balance EVEN IF THE CHECK IS FROM B OF A, THEIR PARENT! I asked, " if the funds are already out of my wife 's B of A account but not yet in mine, where are the funds right now? I was provided no answer to this seemingly simple question. Are they ( BofA/ML ) deriving some benefit from holding my funds temporarily? 
