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HealthyHive, a digital education and consulting platform, has launched a new education program providing retirement-focused advisers with comprehensive health savings account (HSA) education, as well as educational content they can share with their clients.
HSAs present significant opportunities for retirement plan advisers, but they are often not being framed as specialized retirement vehicles, says HealthyHive founder and CEO Carl Hall. In reality, Hall says, HSAs can be a powerful complement to traditional 401(k) plans and individuals’ personal savings, resulting in better retirement outcomes and less stress about paying for health care later in life.
HSA industry assets under management are estimated to reach almost $100 billion this year, with about a third of the assets being held in investments. As HSA investments continue to grow, HealtyHive’s goal is to help advisers learn more about the inner workings of HSAs, providing for increased adoption and more efficient usage.
As it stands now, advisers don’t understand enough about HSAs, and the average person knows even less about what the accounts are and what they can do, says James Tavares, HealthyHive business development director. He notes that HealthyHive provides tools that can deliver HSA education and consultation and incentivize efficient health care consumption by providing price transparency expertise to fiduciaries and retirement plan advisers.
The first step of the educational program consists of short education and training videos that explain specific topics about HSAs. Information is shared via webinars, regulatory updates, blog posts, tips and insights. The next step of the program explains how an HSA benefits from a unique and powerful triple tax advantage.
The goal of a financial adviser, broadly speaking, is to help make sure that when people retire, they don’t run out of money, Tavares says. Having an account where the money can be put aside, grown and spent without paying taxes extends the shelf life of what’s been saved. To this end, one tool within the educational program helps to quantify and visualize the tax savings for both advisers and clients.
After entering in some basic information, such as how many years until retirement, current account value and future healthcare spending expectations, advisers can show a client how many additional years of healthcare spending can be gained by funding an HSA.
The third step of the educational program is meant to teach a client how to become a more empowered healthcare consumer when spending from an HSA, Tavares says. The tool gives a transparent look at the cost for medical and dental procedures and is designed to show the importance of shopping around to get the best price for the service. It also gives examples of how much money can be made from investing what HSA assets over a long time horizon.
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