PLANSPONSOR - August/September 2019 - 52

2019 PLANSPONSOR NATIONAL CONFERENCE
eligible for an HSA all participate in a
high-deductible health plan (HDHP), and
most are confused about how to save and
spend health care dollars. Most have not
been properly educated about how HSAs
can help provide them financial stability.
Kevin Robertson, senior vice president,
chief revenue officer of HSA Bank,
pointed to the consumerism connection
between HDHPs and HSAs. " The first
generation was about understanding
what an HSA is. But now that people
have been in them, they're asking how to
maximize HSA benefits. Mostly, they've
been putting money into HSAs and
spending it, " he said.
Joe Connell, a partner at Sikich
Financial LLP, noted that participants
still confuse HSAs with flexible spending
accounts (FSAs), especially the use-it-orlose-it
aspect. " Plan sponsors are still
trying to get participants to understand
that HSAs are savings accounts, like
retirement plans. We need easier to understand,
one-pager education like 401(k)
plans started doing. Education should
work first on the savings component
and focus on the triple tax advantages of
HSAs before focusing on investing HSA
savings, " he said.
Robertson said participants will
have to embrace the fact that, unlike
retirement plans, HSAs are both
spending and savings vehicles, and will
ebb or grow according to people's age
and financial demands. " I call it a lifecycle
product, " he said.
According to Culhane, people are not
ready for what they will face in health care
costs in retirement. " Our estimate is that
one out of four people will have a chronic
condition to manage in retirement, " she
said. She added that it is possible to
personalize expected expenses for each
participant based on claims data. " That
kind of messaging would make it real, if
we tell people they are short this much
and may need to put 'X' amount more in
their HSA. "
The best time to share the message
is when a medical issue arises, she
said. " Imagine a health care advocate an
employee can call when he is just diagnosed
with diabetes and the advocate
showing the employee how the HSA
can help. "
Robertson said plan sponsors need
to personalize education as best they can,
based on first learning participants' needs
and goals for covering health care costs.
For example, can they pay for out-of-pocket
expenses with other resources now and
(FROM LEFT:) Jamie Greenleaf of Cafaro Greenleaf; Joe Connell of Sikich Financial LLP; Kevin Robertson of
HSA Bank; and Deb Culhane of Optum Financial Services and Optum Bank.
use HSA savings for future expenses?
He said educating at the time of
a medical event is a good strategy, but
employees need to have HSAs explained
before then or they will have no savings
to pay for that event. -RM
... participants still
confuse HSAs with
flexible spending
accounts, especially
the use-it-or-lose-it
aspect.
403(b) Plan Remedial
Amendment Period
The last day of the 403(b) plan remedial
amendment period may seem far off-at
the end of March 2020-but in reality
this date will approach very quickly,
from the perspective of managing and
amending one's retirement plan. It always
takes more time than expected to update
plan documents and designs, and, for
this reason, both Employee Retirement
Income Security Act (ERISA)-governed
and non-ERISA 403(b) plan sponsors
should start working on any plan restatements
now.
Kevin Kidwell, vice president,
national tax exempt sales for OneAmerica,
said the roots of the remedial amendment
period trace back to IRS regulations put in
place in 2007. These stated that all 403(b)
plan sponsors-excluding certain church
plan sponsors-had to adopt a written
plan document no later than December
31, 2009-a new requirement for nonERISA
plans.
At that time, Kidwell said, the IRS
offered little more guidance about what
the document needed to say or include. In
fact, the IRS indicated that the plan document
requirement might be satisfied with
52 PLANSPONSOR.com August - September 2019

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