Work place changing HSA's and rollovers

[DBV1985]

Hi All,

My employer recently changed the HSA from Health Equity to Optum Bank. I am not able to invest until the new HSA reaches a certain balance. That will take about 7 months. I am afraid they will keep changing HSA's every few years and I do not want to end up with 3-4 different ones in the future. I want to try to keep all the funds in one account in some way. I am thinking of keeping the old hsa with Health Equity and investing into it. My employer is not willing to deposit into the old Health Equity. Should I ask them to do a large deposit into Optum bank twice a year and automatically roll it over to Health Equity in order to get the tax benefit right away? I wonder if there will be fee's to do that which would defeat the purpose of rolling it over.

Thanks for your help!

J

[terran]

Seems like it would be easier to roll the old HSA account over to the new one. Is the health equity account much better than the optum one?

[DBV1985]

hah yea I always like to do things "pain in the a$$" kind of way. I just thought that liquidating my investments would be a bad thing?

[DBV1985]

Specifically I have $4400 of Vanguard index funds in investments through Health Equity. The other reason I don't want to liquidate is that I predict in a few years my employer can change HSA's again and then I have to liquidate all over again.

[ixtap]

Specifically I have $4400 of Vanguard index funds in investments through Health Equity. The other reason I don't want to liquidate is that I predict in a few years my employer can change HSA's again and then I have to liquidate all over again.

Why do you consider liquidating a bad thing? You will only be out of the market for a few days, as the rollover will allow you to meet the minimum investable amount. I could swear that our change was between the same two companies, but his employer made it self evident and simple to rollover to the new account.

[terran]

Assuming your state recognizes HSAs (california doesn't) I don't see any harm in liquidating from a tax perspective. I suppose you'll have a bit of time out of the market, so there's that. People roll over old employer 401k's all the time and face the same issue. As long as the Optum bank minimum balances and investment options are acceptable (I'm hoping they are as my wife's employer is going with them next year) then I would just roll over the old plan and be done with it (until/unless they switch again).

[DBV1985]

I finally looked over both HSAs investment options and fees. Optum bank charges three dollars a month to do any investing. The expense ratios for vanguard index funds are two times – four times the price. They both require a $2000 minimum balance before you can invest. I am going to ask my employer if they would mind doing one big withdrawal from my paycheck per year $3450 next year towards the old Health equity account.  The lady told me before that she would not do it because she has to manually input the deductions on every payroll for each employee. It is a private practice. This would be extra work for only one employee requesting a different hsa. Maybe she would not mind if it is only once per year and it would mean she doesn't have to do it 23 other times. Fingers crossed she says it's ok!

J