There Was No Merrill Lynch Cash Sweep Trial on October 13 — Six Days Earlier, Judge Caproni Preliminarily Approved the $39 Million Settlement and Set a Final Hearing for March 12, 2027

Nothing happened in court on October 13, 2026, and nothing will on that date. The jury trial in the Merrill Lynch cash sweep lawsuit had already been called off: Judge Valerie E. Caproni’s order of September 8, 2026 reads, “IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the trial currently scheduled to begin in this matter on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, is CANCELLED,” because the parties had agreed to settle (our October 2 report has the background). What is new is the next step. On October 7, 2026, the judge signed the order granting preliminary approval of the $39,000,000 settlement (Document 401). In it she finds that the court “will likely be able to finally approve the Settlement under Rule 23(e)(2) as being fair, reasonable, and adequate to the Class.”

The order also states: “All proceedings in the Action are stayed until further order of this Court, except as may be necessary to implement the Settlement.” A trial would come back only if the settlement falls apart. In that case, according to the order, “the Parties shall be restored to their respective positions in the Action as of August 31, 2026 and the Court will set a new trial schedule.”

One warning: as of October 16, 2026, the “Key Dates” page of the official site, MLRetirementAccountLitigation.com, still listed “Trial Date October 13, 2026” and the old July 22, 2026 exclusion deadline. The site’s home page has the October 7 update. Follow the home page and the court order.

The settlement covers the class the court certified earlier: “all persons who had one or more Merrill Edge retirement accounts with cash balances that were swept pursuant to the Retirement Asset Savings Program at any time during the period December 15, 2016 through March 15, 2020.” The plaintiff alleges that Merrill “failed to pay a reasonable rate of interest” on that swept cash. In the settlement agreement, Merrill and the other released parties “expressly deny any breach, fault, misconduct, wrongdoing.”

Merrill must pay the $39 million into a settlement fund held by Huntington Bank as escrow agent within ten (10) business days after the later of preliminary approval or receiving the administrator’s W-9 form and wiring instructions. Before class members are paid, the court will decide how much goes to the lawyers, to the class representative and to expenses. Up to $500,000 can be used for notice and administration costs. What is left is divided according to a court-approved plan: “The Administrator shall determine each Class Member’s pro rata share of the Net Settlement Fund, as defined in the Plan of Allocation referenced in the Notice.”

How payments arrive: the agreement describes distributing the money “to Merrill for the benefit of Class Members who are then-current Merrill accountholders or directly to Class Members who are no longer Merrill accountholders.” We found no claim form in the settlement agreement. The individual amounts, the formula and the size of the fee request are in notice exhibits that are not part of the PDFs posted on the official site, so we cannot give a per-person estimate. Any money left over at the end goes to a charity proposed by class counsel, which needs Merrill’s consent and the court’s approval.

These are the dated steps in the October 7, 2026 order:

• Within 14 days of the order: Merrill gives the administrator email and mailing addresses current as of September 30, 2026 for customers whose accounts stayed active through 2026.
• By December 4, 2026: JND Legal Administration emails the notice to class members with a valid email address, mails a postcard to the others, and posts the long-form notice on the case website. Within seven (7) days after that, a summary notice goes out over PR Newswire.
• By January 26, 2027: class counsel files proof that the notices were sent.
• By February 5, 2027: papers supporting the settlement, the plan of allocation and the request for attorneys’ fees are due.
• By February 19, 2027: objections are due. The settlement agreement sets the deadline for exclusion requests at 21 calendar days before the hearing, postmarked; the notice will state it.
• By March 5, 2027: reply papers are due.
• March 12, 2027, 10:00 A.M.: final approval hearing in Courtroom 20C, Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, New York. The judge will decide whether to approve the settlement, the plan of allocation and the fees.

The court “reserves the right to alter the time or the date of the Settlement Hearing” without further notice. Neither the order nor the agreement gives a payment date. Under the agreement, the money is distributed only after the “Effective Date,” which comes after final approval.

If you are in the class and want to be paid, you do not need to do anything now. Make sure the administrator has your current email and postal address, because the notice is due by December 4, 2026. Attendance at the hearing is optional: the order says, “Attendance at the Settlement Hearing is not necessary.”

You get a second chance to leave the class: “By agreement of the Parties, all such Persons will now be given another opportunity to be excluded from, or ‘opt out’ of, the Certified Class.” Opting out means you get no money from this settlement but keep your right to sue Merrill yourself. To object, you must file with the Clerk of the Southern District of New York and mail copies to Wolf Popper LLP (570 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022) and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP (450 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017) by February 19, 2027. Follow the instructions in the long-form notice.

The only official website is MLRetirementAccountLitigation.com, run by JND Legal Administration. Its contact details are: phone 1-833-207-0938; email info@MLRetirementAccountLitigation.com; mail to Valelly v Merrill Lynch, c/o JND Legal Administration, PO Box 91219, Seattle, WA 98111. Under the order, notices are sent by email or postcard and the long-form notice goes on that website. The court-approved process described in the order and the agreement does not ask for a fee. If a message asks for money to “release” your payment, or gives a different website, check it against the official contact details before you reply.

No. This settlement covers only Merrill Edge retirement accounts swept through RASP between December 15, 2016 and March 15, 2020. A separate lawsuit, In re Merrill Lynch Cash Sweep Programs, No. 1:23-cv-10768-MMG-BCM (S.D.N.Y.), is largely separate and continues, but the settlement agreement releases claims in that case that arise out of RASP as offered in connection with self-directed retirement accounts for the class period. Other claims being litigated there are not released. This case also does not cover Wells Fargo cash sweep or deposit-hold claims or Bank of America overdraft fees. Those are separate lawsuits with their own courts and deadlines; see our Bank of America lawsuit overview. Our Merrill Lynch cash sweep settlement page tracks this case. We will update it when the notice goes out and after the March 12, 2027 hearing.