Self Directed Solo 401K Checking account

[Bhanu P.]

@Martha Daisley, @Kreighton Reed, @Dmitriy Fomichenko, @Carl Fischer

I recently opened a SD Solo 401K account primarily to invest in SFR Buy n Hold properties and Quest IRA who helped us with the account referred to ICON bank for opening the account but we do not like them for so many reasons.

Now we need to have a bank account with capability of accepting Zelle and out option is BofA. 

We live in Houston, TX and bank with BofA; it would be convenient in multiple ways to have a bank with local branches than some out of state bank. 

I am trying to open a checking account with Bank of America. When we walk in and talk to Business Banker, we are facing a hard time to explain this particular account type. We went to 4 banks and none of them seems to understand what are we talking about.

Do any of you open SD 401K checking account with BofA, what should be the terminology that I should use? what type of the account that we need to open (my assumption is Trust account is the one that we need)?

I am confused on my next step at this point and posting here to see if you can offer any help. Please do ask me if I need to clarify anything around this. Thank you in advance!!!

[Brian Eastman]

@Bhanu P.

It is unfortunate that you cannot get meaningful guidance from your plan provider. This is a key drawback of using an IRA custodian to provide a Solo 401(K). You pretty much get a set of plan documents and not much else. Specialty providers of such plans that focus not only on document provision but also the necessary consulting support you need to run your plan successfully are a vastly superior option for the Solo 401(k).

A 401(k) is a trust.  What you need is simply a trust account.  The financial institution is not dealing with the 401(k) retirement plan layer, as you are the plan administrator.

You can work with a variety of banks, but will find the exact problem you outline in most cases with mainstream institutions such as BofA - namely that your banker has no idea at all how to help you. So, you have to train them on what you need.

@Kreighton Reed is with Solera National Bank, which solves this problem by having a dedicated team that is very familiar with the framework of a self-directed retirement plan.  They are a good option and will not need to be educated by you.

Otherwise, you are going to need to push your plan provider to give you the support you need to utilize the plan they have produced for you.