Moving from HSA bank to Fidelity

[live4soccer7]

I have had my HSA with HSA Bank since that was a good option YEARS ago. They have since made changes that I do not like. They use to not require you to keep 1k in your hsa account and it could all be invested. Now they are pushing you out of a full brokerage account (moved to schwab). I'm looking for an alternate option.

I was reading on this forum today that Fidelity seems to be the clear choice for a self directed HSA.

Assuming this is the case, is there anything "special" that needs to be done to migrate my account to Fidelity from the HSA Bank/Schwab setup?

[jinga nation]

I moved mine from WealthSaver to Fidelity last year after my employer had an HSA provider change. Just had to complete the Fidelity form and send it in, IIRC.

[elysianfields]

I moved mine from WealthSaver to Fidelity last year after my employer had an HSA provider change. Just had to complete the Fidelity form and send it in, IIRC.

Same for me, I moved my investments before the TD Ameritrade merger with Schwab had completed, and the ACAT transfer from TDA to Fidelity executed flawlessly.

More recently I consolidated a Roth IRA and moved an ETF from Schwab to Fidelity via ACAT, same flawless result.

[charis]

My former employer plan required HSA Bank for direct deposit of HSA contributions.  But I transferred my TD Ameritrade account to Fidelity prior to the switch to Schwab.  I still have a smallish Schwab account from that former employer.  So 90% of my HSA funds are in Fidelity and 10% are still in Schwab.  I should probably merge the two accounts into the Fidelity account now that I don't/can't contribute to an HSA.  But I had no issues transferring funds to Fidelity.  It was simple and quick to do online.

[live4soccer7]

Great to hear! I'll contact fidelity as well and get this process started. I appreciate all of the responses!

[live4soccer7]

I just spoke with fidelity and it sounds like all transfers must be in cash and can not be in kind for HSA plans.

edit: On fidelity's site it gave the option to transfer from a schwab hsa brokerage to fidelity. I went ahead and gave it a try for in kind and I suppose I'll see what happens. It gave a 24 day period for the transfer to occur. I'll post back when I have an update for anyone else searching for doing the same thing.

[Psychstache]

I just spoke with fidelity and it sounds like all transfers must be in cash and can not be in kind for HSA plans.

edit: On fidelity's site it gave the option to transfer from a schwab hsa brokerage to fidelity. I went ahead and gave it a try for in kind and I suppose I'll see what happens. It gave a 24 day period for the transfer to occur. I'll post back when I have an update for anyone else searching for doing the same thing.

I transferred from HSAB to Fido when they first began offering HSAs and I do recall having to liquidate to cash before doing the transfer, but that was several years ago.

[live4soccer7]

I wish I would have known. I would have done the same as well.  I'll let ya all know if they accept the "in kind" transfer.

[crocheted_stache]

I moved my HSA from a credit union to Fidelity for much better investment options. In general, start such transfers by contacting the receiving institution. They have lots of experience.

I don't know if in-kind transfers are an option, but Fidelity will.

[live4soccer7]

They transferred in kind despite fidelity saying it needed to be moved to cash. I have confirmed the shares are in the fidelity hsa and gone out of the schwab hsa. I used the online tool to initiate this transfer.

[live4soccer7]

It took close to a month to get the cash balance from HSA Bank to Fidelity, but all went well and now HSA Bank is closed out. Hopefully this helps someone else out there.

[elysianfields]

It took close to a month to get the cash balance from HSA Bank to Fidelity, but all went well and now HSA Bank is closed out. Hopefully this helps someone else out there.

That's because HSA Bank remains in the prior century and sends checks through the mail to transfer funds to Fidelity, rather than using the ACAT service.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I have my payroll/Employee contributions deposited directly into Fidelity, but my monthly Employer contributions are still deposited in HSA Bank.  Every month, I request a transfer (at Fidelity's website) of the full balance minus $0.01 from HSA Bank to Fidelity every month, and it works fine about 80% of the time.

In the other 20% of the time, HSA Bank doesn't process the transfer or the check is lost in the mail.

I've learned to leave a $0.01 balance at HSA Bank to avoid unpleasant consequences.

[wageslave23]

I'm probably going to do this switch as well. So dumb that HSA bank won't let you invest, they are going to lose a lot of business.  Anyway, the people that switched from Schwab to Fidelity - do you like Fidelity better? I have all of my accounts through schwab since they bought Ameritrade. I liked ameritrade much better. Maybe I'll switch everything to Fidelity.

[live4soccer7]

I really like fidelity. The customer service has been great as well. I can call and actually talk to someone quickly. I don't think fidelity has hsa fees either. It's a win win IMO. If I would have known it was an option I would have done it as soon as it became an option. You know how a lot of this stuff is, once you set it up you kind of just let it be and forget about it until there is a need to change.

edit: fidelity also allows you to invest 100% of your funds instead of having to keep $1000 in your cash account.