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 and do a once a year roll over ($20 fee) into Health Equity in order to get the tax benefit right away?

Thanks for your help!

J

[DavidAnnArbor]

You're allowed to roll over money from one HSA to another regardless of where your employer deposits the HSA savings for you. I would take advantage of any of the tax benefits of the HSA that the employer provides you.

[DBV1985]

I would like to avoid rollovers from my existing HSA because health equity told me I have to liquidate my investments. I want to avoid this every time my employer changes HSA's. I am trying to think of ways to avoid this.

[kooonsty]

You could roll everything into Optum - Then you would quickly have enough money to invest though them. My employer uses Optum and I was happy with the investing options and no fees. They offer several Vanguard funds including VTSAX. Anything over $2000 can be invested and there are no fees. I'm not sure how much of this was negotiated by my employer though.

[DBV1985]

Whew! My employer will allow me to do one or two big withdrawals towards the old HSA Health Equity. I don't need to change my hsa. I researched optum and if I wanted to "invest", they charge a $3/month general fee. Their expense ratios for the vanguard stocks are 2-3 times higher than Health equity. Not sure if that is only with my employer.

J