PLANSPONSOR - May - June 2023 - 32

CONFERENCE COVERAGE
Bank of America, told the conference that
HSA use largely depends on an employee's
financial situation.
" There are going to be
some
employees who have to use that money
today and will immediately look at it
as a health-care benefit, " Clacken said.
" There are some individuals who will
position it more as a longer-term retirement
vehicle where they don't necessarily
need to spend that money today, and it
can be a kind of 401(k) for health care. "
-Alex Ortolani
The Business Case for
Offering HSAs
Besides their potential for yielding tripletax
savings when participants retire, health
savings accounts have benefits here and
now, said Monica De Agostino, human
resources manager at MRIGlobal, in " The
Business Case for Offering HSAs " session.
For one, HSA accounts " empower
employees " she said. " With HSAs, you're
able to roll over your funds from year to
year. It really helps facilitate the ability to
build up significant savings over time,
and that provides a real sense of financial
security. "
When employers contribute,
it also
serves to lower employees' medical costs,
De Agostino noted.
Panelist
Jamie Greenleaf,
senior
vice president of retirement and wealth at
OneDigital, told attendees that health plans
have typically fallen through the cracks
from a fiduciary standpoint, as there has
been little price transparency with which to
benchmark costs. She said providers typically
neglected to disclose all the specific
costs they were charging employers and
where that money was going.
But since the Consolidation Appropriations
Act of 2021 was signed into law
by President Donald Trump, in December
2020, Greenleaf says, employers have had
access to more information from their
health-care providers. -Remy Samuels
Karen Coomber
Vice President, Healthcare
Solutions Intermediary
Business Development,
Fidelity Investments
Brea Dantin
Retirement Plan Adviser
and Chief Operations
Officer, ProCourse
Fiduciary Advisors
Monica De Agostino
Human Resources
Manager, MRIGlobal
Steve Durso
Associate Director
of Benefits Accounts,
WTW
Ellen Goodwin
Of Counsel, Groom
Law Group, Chartered
Jamie Greenleaf
Senior Vice President,
Retirement and Wealth,
OneDigital
Greg Puig
Vice President Benefit
Consulting Services,
Sentinel Group
Jake Spiegel
Research Associate,
EBRI
Flexible Tax Advantages
If the most basic benefit of a defined
contribution plan is the potential tax
advantage
on long-term investments,
then health savings accounts can serve
a similar purpose, said Jake Spiegel,
a research associate at the Employee
Benefit Research Institute, in the session
" Flexible Tax Advantages Abound. "
Spiegel said, " Contributions are made
on a pre-tax basis like to a traditional
401(k). Distributions for qualified medical
expenditures are also tax-free, sort of like a
Roth 401(k). "
However, investments within HSAs
grow tax-free, and contributions made
through payroll deductions are not subject
to Federal Insurance Contributions Act
taxes, Spiegel said. " You get an additional
7.65% tax break in contributions if you're
subject to FICA tax, " he noted.
Spiegel says, " We've done modelling
suggesting that couples who are
facing relatively high health-care costs in
retirement may need as much as about
$380,000 to cover all of their medical
expenses, " he said. " HSAs can offset that
health-care cost burden in retirement. "
Steve Durso, associate director of
benefits accounts at WTW, said some
employers also contribute to HSAs just
like to a 401(k). He said it is very common
for an employer to contribute an HSA
seed, and some companies offer a 401(k)like
match. -Natalie Lin
HSA CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Carol Buckmann
Co-Founding Partner,
Cohen & Buckmann P.C.
Danovan Clacken
Director of Health and
Benefit Account
Distribution, East,
Bank of America
Sage Fattahian
Partner, Morgan,
Lewis & Bockius LLP
Jon Fortune
Director, Workplace
Products and Solutions,
Transamerica
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