ComplaintsforIRA Financial Group, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  12/13/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  - I had entrusted retirement funds with this firm several years back.- This firm had mismanaged personal information that lead to the loss of retirement funds of some of its customers.- Because of this, I removed all of my funds and requested my account be closed on numerous occasions.- Given I have no funds with this institution, no services have been offered.- Though no services have been offered, I have been billed a $300 charge that has been sent to collections.- I am requesting the removal of this invoice, as no services have been provided.

  Business response

  01/11/2024

  Unfortunately, we couldn't close your account due to having funds in your *** account yet. Now that we've received all the paperwork to process the remainder of funds from your *** and the *** dissolution paperwork as of 12/1/2023, we will be able to close your *** account. We've adjusted the fees on your account as well. Thank you for your cooperation with processing your account closure request.

• Initial Complaint

  09/27/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  IRA Financial Group(IFG) helped me enroll my retirement 403B fund and **** fund ($999 fee). And they set up a solo 401k for me back on May 5th, 2020. 6 months later, I discovered that the two funds were combined. I called them many times trying to get ahold of someone to separate the two funds (because I already paid taxes on the **** fund). No one answered nor got back to me.A year later, I contacted the founder of IFG, ***********************. His assistant manager advised that I do a distribution of funds from my 401k account back and forth to open a new **** account (they were supposed to do this in the first place). However, the distribution would cost me ~$800 in taxes, and moving the funds twice would incur more additional fees. In early 2023, I did the distribution myself, paying my CPA to explain to the *** that the distribution was just to separate my 401k and **** accounts due to IFG's mistakes. During the 2 years struggling to fix my accounts, IFG still charged me annual compliance fees ($199/year). In April of 2023, I made it very clear to two IFG employees that I no longer trusted them to continue their servicesbefore the next annual compliance fee was due in May. Even after, they continued to call and email me to collect the annual compliance fee, this time charging me $399 instead of $199 somehow (attached). On September 26th, I received an email that IFG had sent $399 PLUS late fees totaling $486.78 as my debt to collections (attached). That day, I wrote a very detailed email to IFG founder *********************** (please read; attached), requesting he clear the wrongful billing and retract it from collections. So far, I havent heard back from him; only gotten calls and emails from Shylock collections since the 26th. I'm very stressed out by IFG's irresponsibility. Im hoping the BBB will help contact IFG to clear the bill I dont owe, ***************** if this group has damaged it, and take back their collection bill of . That's not my debt. Thanks

  Customer response

  09/28/2023

  My apologies, I mightve misspelled the IRA Financial Groups founders name, ***********************, in my letter. 

  Business response

  10/12/2023

  *******,

  Your past due amount has not been reported to any credit bureaus and there are no late fees assessed by IRA ***************************** You had called IRA ********************** back in May and discussed potentially closing your account, but you never completed any paperwork to close the account.  As far as the amount due, that amount stands at this time.  If you would like to close your account and stop fees from accruing, please reach out to IRA ********************** at ************ to close your account.

  Thank you,

  IRA **********************

  Customer response

  10/14/2023

   
  Complaint: 20667233
  
  Please see the previous email I sent to the founder of IRA Financial Group and the complaint I filed back on September 27th. I have already stated to two IRA ********************** employees that I will no longer continue business as of April 2023. Neither of them acknowledging that and instead choosing to keep calling me to continue service...then billing me that is backwards. Now IRA Financial Group is still asking me to call and discontinue service? Where is the disclosure document?  

  I called the number above *************) twice this Friday afternoon. I was hoping someone would answer and assist. No one answered my calls and I was unable to leave a message due to the voicemail box being full.
  Also, one of the three previous attachments I sent to IRA ********************** and the BBB (in my first complaint) shows that IRA ********************** billed me previous annual compliance fees of $199. Instead their employees billed me $399 with an additional $87.78 late fee on top after I verbally discontinued services. Yet, they refused to accept this? How can they still respond on the BBB to my complaint and ask me to call to prevent fees from accruing?   

  I called IRA ********************** for the third time on 10/13/23, and finally got to speak with the service director *******, who was very kind and recognized my concerns. She informed me that she'd be looking into it and getting back to me either that Friday afternoon (10/13) or up to Monday (10/16) with some answers. 
  At this point, Ive had enough stress trying to address IRA ********************** that I no longer trust the services they provide. Its been three years of stress where Ive had to pay extra fees (my CPA fixing mistakes IRA Financial Group made to my **** account), and now a collection agency calling and emailing me every few days about their wrongful (and arbitrarily raised) compliance fee which will be sent to the credit bureau to damage my credit. 

  If IRA ********************** is a legitimate business entity, they should step forward and solve the problem theyve created before small matters have to escalate into a class-action lawsuit. What IRA ********************** has been doingin these three years and still ongoingis wrong. I saw a few complaints filed before mine with similar problems. If IRA ********************** chooses to continue to ignore this problem and back their employees that claim theres nothing they can do, I will have no choice but to reach out next to the attorney general's office for resolution. 
  
  *********************

  Business response

  11/02/2023

  On October 17, 2023, our billing manager notified ********************* that the accounts were closed, all invoices removed and no further collections will occur. 

• Initial Complaint

  03/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On February 8th 2022 *** Financial was hacked from within and had 35 million dollars worth in cryptocurrency taken out of their *** retirement fund from the Gemini Exchange to this day our funds have not be refunded we are not even sure if we're going to get our funds refunded this company guaranteed that we were safe they guaranteed that our funds would be okay and they highly recommended themselves. It stated that they were insured. *********************** continues to promote his Company on ******* when people are missing their retirement funds completely. This was supposed to be a reputable company. Instead we were left with our retirement funds completely emptied out. And he at this time has no accountability. I cannot begin to tell you how physically ill this has made me and I'm sure many others my nerves are shot everything I ever worked for is completely gone this was supposed to be a reputable company acording to the BBB A+ ratings.So I just want the Better Business Bureau to to know. A lot of people have lost their life savings and hopefully they will take away his A+ rating considering that he has yet to refund a single dime to the people that lost everything they've ever saved for.It would be nice to see what the responses from the Better Business Bureau would get from them *** Financial *********************** ,considering this has been going on for over a month and we have yet to find anything out.Thank you All this was on ************** Yahoo finance and all over ******* around February 11th $35MILLION from the Gemini Exchange and under the *** Financial self-directed accounts.

  Business response

  04/20/2022

  On February 8, 2022, *** Financial Trust discovered suspicious activity that did affect the short-term operability of some customer accounts on the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. We immediately launched an investigation and contacted state and federal law enforcement. We are also working with third-party forensic specialists to determine the nature and scope of this incident. We are still deeply invested in finding solutions to the February incident. We continue our efforts toward recovering funds and are exploring every avenue to provide answers to impacted individuals.   We remain engaged with law enforcement and continue to spend substantial time and effort on our own investigation.

• Initial Complaint

  05/20/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  IRA Financial continues to bill me and harass me for $199 for a service that I did not request. I have asked them to stop (email 5/12) but they continue to bill me, email, and call me several times a week. They say I owe them $199 for a "Transaction Review" service. According to their website this service is OPTIONAL, and their email confirms this but then they say that it's a "requirement" and threaten that the "IRS might freeze my account" if I don't pay. This is nonsense. I keep receiving emailed bills, and have been called by ******* ******** and "***** *********** at least 7 times in April & May. It's a simple shakedown they're using scare tactics on customers that rely on them for financial guidance. It is a breach of their fiduciary duty, and It needs to STOP. I noticed that the BBB records show another complaint for the exact same issue with IRA FInancial, but obviously they have continued with this scam. I'm sure it's lucrative, but it's wrong.

  Business response

  06/15/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2021/06/08) */ A call was made to Ms. **** immediately after learning of the complaint. Management was hoping to come to an agreeable resolution. Her request is no further contact so we will honor her request. Consumer Response /* (3000, 10, 2021/06/15) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) They did stop contacting me, and originally this would have satisfied me. But after reading the cagey and misleading response from the business, I am further disappointed. The representative did call me, and said it was her intention to apologize, admitting that the salesmen had been "overly aggressive." However, her apology was Immediately followed by a request that I remove my complaint with the BBB in other words, they did not want it to remain visible and did not want to have to respond to it publicly. This demonstrates that the company intends to continue this practice, and would like to hide it from view. I believe this practice is dishonest and a breach of their fiduciary duty. And since they do not intend to change, I would like this record of it to remain visible for other customers to see, so that they can protect themselves by refusing to be browbeaten into paying for the unnecessary "service"..

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩