Offering health savings account (HSA) services allows advisers to add value and help clients more holistically plan for retirement, Kristen Donovan, with BAM Retirement Solutions, tells PLANADVISER.
It helps users quantify the value of their high deductible health care plan, both in the present and the future, and select investments.
The day will be highlighted with a live stream webinar from an adviser yet to be determined, who will speak on the benefits of health savings accounts (HSAs), not just for health care costs but for income in retirement, according to WEX Health.
Those who have a health savings account are more certain about how they will cover future health care costs.
Lively HSA owners have requested a mobile app ever since the firm’s launch, says Shobin Uralil, co-founder and COO of Lively.
Just over half think health care will be the biggest expense in retirement, a Nationwide Retirement Institute survey found.
Forty-four percent say that focusing on health and wellness is a primary concern, according to a survey by TD Ameritrade.
It is expanding its retirement plan advice and consulting platform to HSAs and other non-ERISA employer-sponsored plans.
The Center for State & Local Government Excellence notes that with many local governments shifting benefits decisions to workers, those workers need help understanding finance basics.
They are centered around three key themes: 1) Secure your foundation, 2) Achieve greater prosperity and 3) Inspire confidence.
Workers under age 35 are realizing they need to start saving now, according to Ascensus.
To help employees achieve their savings goals, 82% of sponsors are making changes to plan design, and 83% are updating their investment menus.
“Although budget pressures have put limits on some reforms and the Senate outlook this year is dim, the proposed changes indicate the direction that many Republicans and more than a few Democrats would like to take,” writes Tracy Watts, Mercer’s leader on health care reform.
The health care plan and the health savings account are not the same thing; while the employer has some administrative responsibilities, the HSA belongs wholly to the employee and is portable.
This is a 50% increase from 2017.
Health savings accounts are often described as the 401(k) of health care—so it is only natural that retirement specialist advisers can play an important role in educating the public about these important savings vehicles; survey data shows more education and advice is desperately needed.
Furthermore, only 37% are contributing to an IRA, and 18% to a HSA, Edward Jones learned in a survey
Devenir finds HSA assets grew to an estimated $45.2 billion, spread across some 22 million accounts, at the end of 2017; as more account owners are investing their HSA dollars, the demand for advice is clear.