Health savings accounts could be a big help when it comes to setting aside money for retirement, but despite the length of time that HSAs have been around, they still don't draw substantial assets from most account owners, nor do they generally get used in a way that would pay off in retirement. Related: 11 practical HSA FAQs HSAs offer the much-vaunted triple tax advantage (tax-deductible contributions, assets grow tax free, not taxed on withdrawal if taken for legitimate medical expenses), and offer users the option to invest those contributions instead of just letting them sit there, but few workers do that. And while employers are busy trying to educate workers about HSA benefits, that doesn't mean that advisors are totally on board. Nor are workers, for that matter, although that could be changing as they, and their plan sponsors, better understand the long-term use of HSAs. In fact, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, the longer people have accounts, the more they tend to save in them. In addition, they also tend to actually invest within them, rather than simply parking cash, and because HSAs have a rollover feature, the longer people have them the more they treat them more like investment accounts rather than as "specialized checking accounts." READ MORE: |

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Marlene Satter

Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.