Transfer $70k from Wells Fargo (US) to my other account at a Credit Union bank
The LLC is paying you.  It would only be fraudulent if you were trying to move the money out of the LLC to avoid a liability.  I'm pretty sure the transaction will be taxable income for you personally.  Consider consulting with a CPA to ensure that you're doing the proper record keeping and to get advice on the best way to minimize tax burden while achieving your goals. Yes, you can do this.  I do this for my own single-member LLC, but I usually do it online instead of writing a check. Your only legal obligation is to pay quarterly estimated tax payments to the IRS. I'm assuming you are not otherwise doing anything shady. For example, that you have funds in your business account to pay any expenses that will be due soon or that you are trying to somehow pull a fast one on someone else... Making a payment of any amount is usually legal, although of course the specific circumstances matter, and I'm not qualified to give legal advice. Just had to throw in that disclaimer not because I think there's a problem here, but because it is impossible to give a definite answer to a legal question in a specific situation on Stack Exchange. But the government will be involved. There are two parts to that. First, as part of anti-money-laundering laws, banks have to report all transactions above a certain limit; I believe $10k. When you use a check or similar to pay, that happens pretty much automatically. When making a cash payment, you may have to fill out some forms. An secondly, Edward Snowden revealed that the government also tapped into banking networks, so pretty much every transaction is recorded, even if it is not reportable.
Wells Fargo.  They have an account called PMA, an umbrella account for checking, savings, mortgage, and brokerage accounts.  It would cost $30/month, but I never had to pay because I have a rollover retirement account that is enough to waive the fees.  They count all accounts, including mortgage, which I used to have.  Oh, and no restrictions.  An added advantage is there are no fees for any of the accounts, nor for some other things, like bank checks, outside ATM fees, etc.    I'm in California, so I don't know if the same deal exists in other states.  But if you qualify for the free account, it's pretty good.  Actually, most of my investments are Vanguard funds.  And I have another rollover account with Vanguard, and never pay fees, but I only buy or sell from one Vanguard fund to another, and rarely since I have targeted retirement funds that are designed to be no maintenance.  For some reason, I trust Vanguard more than most other funds; maybe because I like their philosophy on low-cost funds, which they started but are now getting more popular. "Yup. It's totally legit and it is not a money market account. Though interest rates are so low across the board, this is about as high as savings accounts get and so it is called a ""high-yield savings account"". A number of banks offer these. There are different offerings nation-wide versus local/state. I would use this compare tool at DepositAccounts.com to find them and the blog is very good with updates and trends. Here are some well advertised accounts: If you don't already have a rewards checking account, get one of those first. DepositAccounts.com will direct you to these as well. A reasonable interest rate on rewards checking is 2.5% and up. So much better. The only catches are reasonable - online statements, direct deposit or autopay, and use your debit card 10 or 12 times a month for any transaction amount (groceries, coffee, gas - easy). The other major thing I would consider when opening any account is where you live and the current accounts you have. If you have an AMEX card already, just use their savings account. That way you have unified accounts, faster transfers, your personal information isn't spread thinly around all different banks, you have more leverage with the company as a ""long-standing customer"", etc. As far as using a bank in the state where you live, it simplifies taxes. Two more things: I would always choose a credit union over a bank (and many have excellent rewards checking accounts). If you use Mint, Yodlee, or other financial software, make sure the potential new bank integrates with that service." I have the PDF of Wells Fargo bank sent by my client which also quotes the SWIFT Confirmation #.  This is just the internal reference maybe from SWIFT terminal. It just means SWIFT received the message. Nothing more. What may have happened ? It could have got stuck somewhere in correspondent Bank chain. Or may have reached ICICI NY and they are not able to apply funds to your account in the ICICI India branch for whatever reasons. What are my next steps here ?  You would need to do 2 things; First contact your ICICI bank branch with this details and ask them if they can trace it for you. Second contact your client and ask them to raise a BCNR [Beneficiary Claims Non Receipt] for this transaction with Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is bound to investigate this. Depending on your Clients relationship with Wells Fargo, there maybe charges of around 30-50 USD. This would trace the payment via Wells Fargo to the next in chain and can identify where it was stuck or when it was credited. What more information should I ask for The information in confirmation is quite less. Talk to your client and see if you are request for Sender Reference Number [This is preserved from Wells Fargo to your ICICI bank], BIC of Wells Fargo, Immediate routing [or sender Correspondent]; i.e. which Bank the payment was sent to [Wells Fargo may send it to other Bank and then it would reach ICICI] I've been using online billpay for years, at three different banks.  Two were local (a bank and a credit union), and the other is ING Direct.  I haven't had any problems with any of them that weren't self-inflicted (forgetting to enter the bill).  The credit union's system is pretty clunky, but the other two are fine.  One thing to make sure of is to leave enough time for the bill to arrive, just like you would do if mailing a check.  Just have the bill sent a week before its due, and you should be fine.  I usually do this soon after I get the bill, so I don't forget about it.  ING will actually receive bills from some companies automatically, if you wish.  So all you need to do is go online and click pay, and it will know when the due date is and the amount to pay.  For bills that have the same amount each month (mortgage, insurance premiums, etc.), you can set it up to pay automatically each month so you don't have to do anything. Its a bit of a hassle moving banks, and reentering the account numbers, addresses, etc.  Stopping a bill is as easy as clinking delete in the online system.  My current setup is to have all my bills paid through ING, and my paycheck direct deposited.  I can transfer money to/from my local bank in a couple of days if I have checks to deposit, or to use the local ATM.   I short, I would never go back to writing paper checks. "You should have separate files for each of the two businesses.  The business that transfers money out should ""write check"" in its QB file.  The business that receives money should ""make deposit"" in its QB file. (In QB you ""write check"" even when you make the payment by some other means like ACH.)  Neither business should have the bank accounts of the other explicitly represented.   On each side, you will also need to classify the payment as having originated from / gone to some other account - To know what's correct there, we'd need to know why your transferring the money in the first place and how you otherwise have your books established.  I think that's probably beyond the scope of what's on-topic / feasible here. Money into your business from your personal account is probably owner's equity, unless you have something else going on.  For example, on the S Corp you should be paying yourself a salary.  If you overpay by accident, then you might write a check back to the company from your personal account to correct the mistake.  That's not equity - It's probably a ""negative expense"" in some other account that tracks the salary payments." The bank is expected to issue you a check for the balance of your account, make sure your name and address on file is correct as that is who they will make the check to and send it. Have the credit union also contact Chase, or get a statement from the credit union, about their customer. If the check does bounce back to the credit union and the account was under his name, then you will have to deal with the state and his estate and you will have to find a different solution for the bills. "You have received some good answers, but since your concern is proper protocol, keep everything in writing (emails, not phone calls).  Also, you'll get a quick response by contacting the University ""Accounts Payable"" department, confirm the situation with a summary as you posted here and ask for the ABA routing number for the transfer.  The routing number, email, and you bank statement is all the records you need to cover your but." "Having dealt with with Social Security, state agencies, and banks more than I'd care to, I would urge you to do the following: 1) Get a 100% clear answer on whether or not you are listed as ""joint"" or ""authorized user/signer"" for an account. This will probably require a call to the bank, but for less than an hour of you and your friend's time you will save yourself a whole lot of hassle. The difference is like this: if you worked at a business that added you as an authorized user for a credit or debit card, this would allow you to use the card to buy things. But that doesn't make the money in the bank yours! On the other hand if you are listed as ""joint"", this regards ownership, and it could become tricky to establish whether its your money or not to any governmental satisfaction. 2) You are completely correct in being honest with the agency, but that's not enough - if you don't know what the facts are, you can't really be honest with them. If the form is unclear it's ok to ask, ""on having a bank account, does being listed as an authorized user on someone else's account count if it isn't my money or bank account?"" But if you are listed as holding the account jointly, that changes the question to: ""I am listed as joint on someone else's checking account, but it isn't my money - how is that considered?"" To Social Security it might mean generating an extra form, or it might mean you need to have the status on the account changed, or they might not care. But if you don't get the facts first, they won't give you the right answers or help you need. And from personal experience, it's a heck of a lot easier to get a straight and clear answer from a bank than it is from a federal government agency. Have the facts with you when you contact them and you'll be ok - but trust me, you don't want them guessing!"