The short story is:
- In the spring of 2016, we gave our broker a check to max out our Roth IRA contributions for the tax year of 2015 (check was written and cashed by the broker before April 15 in 2016).
- Broker didn't contribute the funds until June 2016, missing the tax deadline
- Broker didn't tell inform us what happened
- In Spring of 2017 (the next year), we gave the broker another maxed-out Roth IRA contribution with instructions to be used for the 2016 tax year. Broker used it for the 2017 tax year, but informed us it was for the 2016 tax year.
- This pattern applying the maxed-out Roth IRA for the current year and informing us they applied it for the previous tax year continued every year.
This year (2019), we switched brokers because of other frustrations and the new broker found the mistake the old broker (and his assistant) made in 2016. The new broker, respectably, told us what happened.
The change in the Roth IRA maximum contribution from 5500 (in 2018) to 6000 (in 2019) also made it easier to catch what was happening. The old broker saying they contributed 6000 (actually $12,000 for the 2 Roth IRA accounts) for the tax year of 2018 was a flag.
We were considering making our 2019 maxed-out Roth IRA contribution right now (in the spring of 2019), but are unable to because of our past broker's mistake and perpetual cover-up.
Also, the dollar amount is for 2 Roth IRA accounts, so $11,000 total, that was not properly applied to the 2015 tax year.
Main Question:
What can we do about this?
What would you do?
Update
Thank you, everyone, for your help, we appreciate it!