Fidelity offers individual HSA accounts?

[sengsational]

I'll probably wait until January to switch. That way, you guys will flush out any "gotchas", hehe!

Thanks for posting your results here. Just know that all the tooth enamel ground away will be spread out to those of us dragging our feet.


Or I might go with the gauss approach (a highly respected member here for these types of things), if direct transfer is going to be too laborious.

I stopped doing "direct transfers" of HSAs one or two custodians ago. I just request a personal check for my balance, close the account, then deposit the funds into the new HSA ENSURING THAT IT IS CODED AS A 60 day/INDIRECT ROLLOVER. You do have to ensure that you don't do this type of rollover too often (ie more than once per/year - I think 366 satisfies the requirement, but do check on your own) or it could go really bad with the IRS.

 

[fosterscik]

Interesting/surprising. I started my transfer at a similar time and have a much shorter completion estimate, The transfer tracker shows:

Estimated Completion Date: 12/14/18
11/27/18 Fidelity has finished processing your transfer request, and has sent it to Renasant Bank for review.
11/27/18 Your paperwork has been received, and is now being processed by Fidelity.
11/16/18 Printed Online : View your transfer request (PDF) Opens new window.
11/16/18 Started Online

I mailed in the paper request on the 17th. It took a long time to be processed so I suspect the receiving mail room is swamped.

My current bank just zeroed out my HSA account so presumably "the check is in the mail" to Fidelity. Should beat Fidelity's estimated completion date.

 

[fosterscik]

My current bank just zeroed out my HSA account so presumably "the check is in the mail" to Fidelity. Should beat Fidelity's estimated completion date.

And it’s there...[emoji41]
Just checked my fidelity account and it’s sitting there ready to invest. Maybe good timing for investment given today’s 3%+ drop!

 

[pb4uski]

Ok, I got impatient...

I called HealthSavings Administrators and they can't even tell me if they have received the transfer request from Fidelity and still claim it will take 4-6 weeks.... so I took a cue from an earlier poster and just processed an online withdrawal for my account balance less $10 check fee.

Another reason that I am thru with HealthSavings Administrators... let's say I had $40,000 in my account... there is a $10 check fee so it tells me that my withdrawal amount must be $10 less than my balance so I withdraw $39,990 ($39,990.01 will not work)... it still deducts the $10 check fee and says they will send me a check for $39,980 so I'll still have $10 with these bozos ... but it now says "Pending Withdrawal for -$xx,xxx.xx - Effective date Dec 05, 2018 (Expect to see changes in 3-4 business days)"... so it looks like they will send the check to me in 3-4 business days and then I'll go down to Fidelity and "deposit" it into my new Fidelity HSA account and make sure to keep all the records that it within the 60 day rollover period and deal with the IRS if and when necessary.

If I never get the hanging $10 it is well worth it to be rid of these clowns... but with any luck the Fidelity transfer request will get there... see a $10 balance and do the transfer to clean it out.

All of that said, my Vanguard Total Stock at HealthSavings Administrators was cashed out on Nov 19 at $66.99/share and it closed yesterday at $67.29 so not a lot of damage so far.

Checked on status this morning for both my and DW's HSAs. Last week we had a glitch because the securities had not been sold and they could not transfer Admiral shares in-kind. Now, the securities have been sold and the sending HSAs are all cash and Fidelity has resubmitted the paperwork to HealthSavings Administrators.

Now the wait begins.

Just noticed that the request has an estimated completion date of 01/07/2019!!!

Ah, a lot can happen between now and then. I guess if time out of the market really bothered me I could buy stock in my IRA equal to what I cashed out in the HSAs and then sell it later once I bought stock in my HSAs.

Perhaps I should be more worried about that time out of the market thing, but I'm really not.

 

[fosterscik]

Ok, I got impatient...

I'd be frustrated too.

My process has been very smooth. I can trade today, use funds for reimbursements etc. on 12/8. I've just ordered debit cards for me and DW. All seems to be going very smoothly at Fidelity. I think this will work out well. Thanks OP to alerting me to this HSA option!

 

[CaptTom]

Before anyone else goes and does the research like I did...

This HSA is only offered to folks with a high-deductible health plan.

About half-way down this page, they define HDHPs:

Many folks on here have HDHPs, I'm sure. Mine doesn't meet the requirement, however.

 

[njhowie]

Before anyone else goes and does the research like I did...

This HSA is only offered to folks with a high-deductible health plan.

Generally, these days if you have a qualifying plan, the name of it will include "HSA" in it to remove confusion.

 

[audreyh1]

Generally, these days if you have a qualifying plan, the name of it will include "HSA" in it to remove confusion.

Not with BCBS in Texas. Only their plan search function lets you find them. None of the individual plan documentation says anything about HSA eligibility. Certainly not in the name!

 

[RunningBum]

Before anyone else goes and does the research like I did...

This HSA is only offered to folks with a high-deductible health plan.

That's kind of mixing up two things.

You can only make an HSA contribution in a year you have an HDHP.

If you have an HSA account from past year contributions when you had an HDHP, you can open an account with Fidelity and transfer the old account over. I don't believe there is an requirement to have a current HDHP. You just can't make a new contribution without one.

 

[audreyh1]

Before anyone else goes and does the research like I did...

This HSA is only offered to folks with a high-deductible health plan.

About half-way down this page, they define HDHPs:

Many folks on here have HDHPs, I'm sure. Mine doesn't meet the requirement, however.

Hmmm - Fidelity has those out-of-pocket maximums wrong. I'm seeing $6750 for self-only and $13,500 for family for 2019. I suspect the 2018 MaxOP numbers are incorrect as well.

Directly from the IRS https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-18-30.pdf

I sent Fidelity the IRS link.

 

[foxfirev5]

While a satisfied Fido customer, the hassle of rolling over my HSA to save on expenses does not appear to be worth my time. The delays and fumbling would drive me nuts which would only further aggravate any health conditions. This in turn could result in higher medical bills resulting in a much larger reduction to my overall portfolio.

 

[audreyh1]

While a satisfied Fido customer, the hassle of rolling over my HSA to save on expenses does not appear to be worth my time. The delays and fumbling would drive me nuts which would only further aggravate any health conditions. This in turn could result in higher medical bills resulting in a much larger reduction to my overall portfolio.

I intend to rollover for consolidation and better reporting/statements.

I figure it’s a hassle, but worth it to me for the above reasons.

 

[njhowie]

Not with BCBS in Texas. Only their plan search function lets you find them. None of the individual plan documentation says anything about HSA eligibility. Certainly not in the name!

Ours is "IHC Bronze EPO HSA AmeriHealth Advantage $25/$50"

The BCBS plans is our state are "Omnia Bronze HSA" and "Omnia Silver HSA".

I assumed (obviously incorrectly) that other states were just the same.

 

[pb4uski]

... If you have an HSA account from past year contributions when you had an HDHP, you can open an account with Fidelity and transfer the old account over. I don't believe there is an requirement to have a current HDHP. You just can't make a new contribution without one.

That's us. We no longer have an HSA qualified insurance plan so we can't make new contributions but we've been a substantial amount of money from prior years that we want to rollover to Fidelity.

 

[travelover]

While a satisfied Fido customer, the hassle of rolling over my HSA to save on expenses does not appear to be worth my time. The delays and fumbling would drive me nuts which would only further aggravate any health conditions. This in turn could result in higher medical bills resulting in a much larger reduction to my overall portfolio.

Sounds like you should stay put

I intend to rollover for consolidation and better reporting/statements.

I figure it’s a hassle, but worth it to me for the above reasons.

I'm in this camp. I'm tired of HSA Admin and it won't get any better as I age.

 

[pb4uski]

It looks like the withdrawal requests were processed as our accounts have each been reduced by the amount of the withdrawals requested (balance less $20).... now it is just a matter of waiting for the checks to come in the mail and ferrying them over to the local Fidelity office... and the icing on the cake is that with the 1% decline in the VTI so far today that'll put me about even with what I cashed out at back on Nov 19th.

Ok, I got impatient...

I called HealthSavings Administrators and they can't even tell me if they have received the transfer request from Fidelity and still claim it will take 4-6 weeks.... so I took a cue from an earlier poster and just processed an online withdrawal for my account balance less $10 check fee.

Another reason that I am thru with HealthSavings Administrators... let's say I had $40,000 in my account... there is a $10 check fee so it tells me that my withdrawal amount must be $10 less than my balance so I withdraw $39,990 ($39,990.01 will not work)... it still deducts the $10 check fee and says they will send me a check for $39,980 so I'll still have $10 with these bozos ... but it now says "Pending Withdrawal for -$xx,xxx.xx - Effective date Dec 05, 2018 (Expect to see changes in 3-4 business days)"... so it looks like they will send the check to me in 3-4 business days and then I'll go down to Fidelity and "deposit" it into my new Fidelity HSA account and make sure to keep all the records that it within the 60 day rollover period and deal with the IRS if and when necessary.

If I never get the hanging $10 it is well worth it to be rid of these clowns... but with any luck the Fidelity transfer request will get there... see a $10 balance and do the transfer to clean it out.

All of that said, my Vanguard Total Stock at HealthSavings Administrators was cashed out on Nov 19 at $66.99/share and it closed yesterday at $67.29 so not a lot of damage so far.

 

[MichaelB]

Update

Fidelity called me this afternoon. Seems they cannot finalize the transfer from my TD account (HSA Bank) to my new Fido HSA, as HSA Bank said no.



I chatted with HSA Bank for an interesting 42 minutes. There was some confusion and obfuscation, but the rep eventually said 1) the funds must be in HSA Bank, not TD, 2) the process may take 4-6 weeks, 3) they "strongly recommend" I print, sign and physically mail the transfer docs. My impression is they are deliberately making this as complicated as possible. So, this afternoon I'm transferring the funds from TD back to HSA Bank, and then I'll once again initiate the transfer from Fidelity.

I’ll add to the updates. After the money transferred from TD back to HSABank I prepared the paperwork and handed it to the Fidelity rep in the local office on 12/27. The Fidelity website showed “waiting for paperwork” until 11/30 for me and 12/5 for DW, and estimated completion dates are 12/13 for me and 12/17 for DW. No idea why the differences when everything was done together.

Yesterday AM (12/06) the funds were no longer available in our HSA Bank accounts. My balance is 0, DWs balance is $4.81

 

[swakyaby]

My HSA transfer from Optum Bank to Fidelity has been reasonably fast. On 11/26, I downloaded Fidelity's HSA form and took the pre-filled form that afternoon to a Fidelity office to sign in front of them. The rep confirmed I needed to transfer the investment portion (Vanguard Admiral shares) to the Optum's cash balance account. That evening, I made the request on Optum's website to transfer the investments to the cash account. Yesterday, 12/6, I received notice from Optum Bank that my HSA account was now zero and closed. So it took 11 days for me, or 8 business days. Not bad at all.

 

[athena53]

I'd sent the transfer paperwork to Fidelity but then read of all the delays everyone is encountering and found that I could transfer the balance in my HSA to my checking account. That took a few days but it's there now. In the meantime, Fidelity called me to confirm the transfer request and I told them to ignore it because I'm depositing a check directly. Later this morning I'll be driving to the Fidelity office, handing the check to a human and making sure they code it as a tax-free rollover. One glitch: I'd ordered a specific dollar amount transferred and the value in my account went up before they liquidated it so HSA still has another $1,200. I just had that re-allocated to cash and will have that transferred when it's all in cash. I'm writing Fidelity a check for what I know have plus the $1,200. Good to consolidate accounts and simplify life.

 

[pb4uski]

It looks like my impatience was rewarded... we received checks for the balances in our HSA accounts in today's mail... 5 days and 3 business days after I requested the withdrawals. Now tomorrow we just need to go to our local Fidelity office and deposit them in our accounts and buy back in.

4-6 weeks.... bah, humbug!

Ok, I got impatient...

I called HealthSavings Administrators and they can't even tell me if they have received the transfer request from Fidelity and still claim it will take 4-6 weeks.... so I took a cue from an earlier poster and just processed an online withdrawal for my account balance less $10 check fee.

Another reason that I am thru with HealthSavings Administrators... let's say I had $40,000 in my account... there is a $10 check fee so it tells me that my withdrawal amount must be $10 less than my balance so I withdraw $39,990 ($39,990.01 will not work)... it still deducts the $10 check fee and says they will send me a check for $39,980 so I'll still have $10 with these bozos ... but it now says "Pending Withdrawal for -$xx,xxx.xx - Effective date Dec 05, 2018 (Expect to see changes in 3-4 business days)"... so it looks like they will send the check to me in 3-4 business days and then I'll go down to Fidelity and "deposit" it into my new Fidelity HSA account and make sure to keep all the records that it within the 60 day rollover period and deal with the IRS if and when necessary.

If I never get the hanging $10 it is well worth it to be rid of these clowns... but with any luck the Fidelity transfer request will get there... see a $10 balance and do the transfer to clean it out.

All of that said, my Vanguard Total Stock at HealthSavings Administrators was cashed out on Nov 19 at $66.99/share and it closed yesterday at $67.29 so not a lot of damage so far.

 

[pb4uski]

It looks like my impatience was rewarded... we received checks for the balances in our HSA accounts in today's mail... 5 days and 3 business days after I requested the withdrawals. Now tomorrow we just need to go to our local Fidelity office and deposit them in our accounts and buy back in.

4-6 weeks.... bah, humbug!

VICTORY!!!

DW and I went down to our local Fidelity office today and deposited the checks that we received in yesterday's mail as HSA rollover contributions... I just checked our accounts and the money is already posted so now all I need to do is to deploy it... will probably do that tomorrow.

With 20/20 hindsight, the easiest thing was what I eventually did... convert all shares to cash and withdrawal the balance in our HSA accounts and have a check sent to us and deposit it. Soup to nuts that would have taken less than a week or so... much better and easier than the trustee-to-trustee transfer approach that our former HSA vendor said would take 4-6 weeks!

 

[MichaelB]

It looks like my impatience was rewarded... we received checks for the balances in our HSA accounts in today's mail... 5 days and 3 business days after I requested the withdrawals. Now tomorrow we just need to go to our local Fidelity office and deposit them in our accounts and buy back in.

4-6 weeks.... bah, humbug!

Your post reminded me to check my Fido account. Both HSAs are there. Last i checked was Sunday, so they made it yesterday or today. Took two weeks. There’s still a $4.81 balance which I’ll ask for but suspect may not arrive.

 

[athena53]

The check I handed to the people at the local Fidelity office now shows up in my account. I also saw the the remaining $1,275 in my account at Health Savings, which I liquidated yesterday, is marked as a "transfer out" and my balance is $0.00. I assume that will end up in my bank account in the next day or two. Almost done!

Thanks to the people who pointed out the new Fidelity HSAs in the first place and who posted ways to get it done faster.

 

[pb4uski]

^^^ Your post reminded me to check our accounts at HealhSavings Administrators... looks like they took the $10 balance that should have remained for each account as well as $6 in interest for me and $3 in interest for DW... so it cost us $29 to close the accounts in addition to $10 for each account for the check fee... so $49 in total... NBD... we actually may have avoided a larger account closure fee doing it the way that we did... best part is that we are done with them.

 

[RunningBum]

I'd sent the transfer paperwork to Fidelity but then read of all the delays everyone is encountering and found that I could transfer the balance in my HSA to my checking account. That took a few days but it's there now. In the meantime, Fidelity called me to confirm the transfer request and I told them to ignore it because I'm depositing a check directly. Later this morning I'll be driving to the Fidelity office, handing the check to a human and making sure they code it as a tax-free rollover. One glitch: I'd ordered a specific dollar amount transferred and the value in my account went up before they liquidated it so HSA still has another $1,200. I just had that re-allocated to cash and will have that transferred when it's all in cash. I'm writing Fidelity a check for what I know have plus the $1,200. Good to consolidate accounts and simplify life.

So you can just have the old custodian send you a check, and you just write a check for the same amount to Fidelity and it counts as a rollover? There's no special way the first check has to be made out?

In my case, Fidelity sent the transfer request over to Further on 11/30. No update since then, and the Further account shows the full balance. I'll probably wait until after Christmas, since I don't want to deal with it right now and it's a 2 hour drive to the Fido office so I'd probably mail it or see if I can transfer money online, but I may wind up taking this approach.