Health Savings Administrators' New Custodian

[audreyh1]

You initiated the sales of the funds or they did once they got the transfer request?

I did it. Fidelity told me that holdings could not be transferred in kind and that I needed to go to cash in my HSA Administrators HSA account. I did that shortly after opening the Fidelity HSA and setting up the transfer.

 

[ownyourfuture]

I've only read the last page of this thread, so the following may or may not be relevant.

I wouldn't recommend going with HSA Bank.
That's where I opened mine.
(only because at the time, Fidelity didn't offer one)

Didn't like the website, the links to the brokerage, the fees involved if you have under $5000 with them, or anything else for that matter.

To say Fidelity is superior, would be a huge understatement.

 

[gauss]

I did a "direct transfer" of HSA assets between custodians and will never make that mistake again.

Ever since when I have transferred custodians, I just have the 1st custodian cut me a check for the balance and then within 60 days deposit the amount into the new HSA via an "indirect/ aka 60-day rollover."

I typically will open the new HSA account and establish a new account number, perhaps with a token deposit amount, before requesting the check from the prior custodian.

The lines of accountability are much clearer using this method and neither custodian knows about the other.

I think there is a 1 rollover/year limit by the IRS when using my method so do watch out for that.

-gauss

 

[simple girl]

I did a transfer from HSA Admin to Fidelity.

I sold my assets in HSA Admin into cash first.

Did the Fidelity transfer online.

It took several months. After I initiated the transfer I was unable to access my HSA Admin account. There was quite a while where I couldn't actually see where my money was at all. However I could see on the Fidelity site that it was "in progress".

Very glad to be done with HSA Admin.

 

[DektolMan]

I made the switch from Health Equity HSA to Fidelity. Before the switch I moved funds to a money market inside Health Equity. Move took a couple of months and I initiated it thru Fidelity. Happy with Fidelity.

 

[jarts98]

Very glad to be done with HSA Admin.

Me, too! Fidelity offers a much better experience.

 

[gauss]

^
+1 to Fidelity's HSA.

It feels very similar to their traditional brokerage accounts.


No separate bank / mutual fund / brokerage platforms that the money has to move between unlike most of the other HSA's I have used in the past.

-gauss

 

[audreyh1]

Me, too! Fidelity offers a much better experience.

Me 4. HSA Admin was such a pain especially at the end. Fidelity has been a delight in terms of how seamlessly their HSA accounts operate and no fees of any kind!

 

[explanade]

I did a transfer from HSA Admin to Fidelity.

I sold my assets in HSA Admin into cash first.

Did the Fidelity transfer online.

It took several months. After I initiated the transfer I was unable to access my HSA Admin account. There was quite a while where I couldn't actually see where my money was at all. However I could see on the Fidelity site that it was "in progress".

Very glad to be done with HSA Admin.

Which side did you initiate it from?

 

[audreyh1]

Fidelity.

Normally account transfers are initiated from the institution receiving the funds since they are the ones motivated to bring in the money.

 

[Gotadimple]

Just to be clear, you all are talking about Health Savings Administrators which is different from HSA Bank, a division of Webster Bank.

 

[audreyh1]

Just to be clear, you all are talking about Health Savings Administrators which is different from HSA Bank, a division of Webster Bank.

Yes, that is correct - HSA Administrators a.k.a HealthSavings. Although potentially confusing is that for many years HSA Administrators used HSA Bank for the cash portion of their HSA accounts.

 

[explanade]

HSA "reached out" to me after I threatened to file a complaint.

They gave me name of a person for Fidelity to send the transfer request to.

We shall see.

 

[JRon]

We had HSA at a local bank and I requested the funds sent to me and then I deposited the same amount into Fidelity within 60 days.

 

[simple girl]

Which side did you initiate it from?

Fidelity's side. I believe I opened the HSA account online with no issue, but then I wasn't able to initiate the transfer electronically. I can't remember what the issue was, though. I remember having to fill out some of Fidelity's paperwork and mailing it in, then a while afterwards I saw that they had initiated the transfer process.

 

[HenryD]

I did it. Fidelity told me that holdings could not be transferred in kind and that I needed to go to cash in my HSA Administrators HSA account. I did that shortly after opening the Fidelity HSA and setting up the transfer.

I just did it too. From Further/Schwab to Fidelity. Further was charging $36+$18 a year to maintain an account with no current transactions.

Schwab refused to transfer the assets, forcing me to liquidate. Further refused to allow me to sell more than 90% in the first liquidation, so it took two sales over several days waiting for things to clear. Two attempts to transfer the cash once it finally did clear before it showed up at Fido. Seven weeks and a few message/calls to get it done. Further account still shows as open, but phone rep assured me it's closed. I'm concerned they will keep trying to charge fees to it and push the balance negative.

Partly this was a dry run to see how much hassle it will be to transfer DWs HSA when she quits Megacorp. I can only hope it will go more smoothly from Optum, but I have my doubts.

 

[explanade]

So adding to the ongoing saga of my struggle with HSA, I submitted a transfer of assets form with Fidelity in mid April.

I called HSA at least a half dozen times in May and April when Fidelity told me that HSA was not responding.

Each time they denied they ever received a transfer request from Fidelity. Once they told me I can't close the account directly with HSA, that I had to initiate the request through Fidelity.

But the catch-22 is they deny they ever got the request. They still have not directly acknowledged it.

Some time in the last 2-3 weeks, I was locked out of my account at healthsavings.com. Got back from trip, called them and they said my account was closed.

But still no check sent to Fidelity or me.

I called again today. They said check will be sent out this Friday. After over 3 months, I don't believe ANYTHING that they say.

I filed a complaint with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. I also looked for filing a consumer complaint with the FTC but couldn't find anything specific. Appears the CFPB took over those functions from FTC.

I don't know if it's worth filling a complaint with the BBB.

I don't know if my 90 day or 180 day countdown starts from when I physically get a check or from when HSA closed my account. I don't even know the actual date.

Then HSA has a temerity to ask me to fill out a survey.

 

[Sue J]

I moved our HSAs from HSA to Fidelity earlier this year. Mine took longer than DHs. When I could no longer log into HSA is when I realized they had done the transfer. Yeah, not a great process on their end. But Fidelity has been great. I really like their mutual fund options and their website is very informative. And it’s useful, unlike HSAs!

At Fidelity there is a place to check your transfer and you can see the process.

HSAs website was the worst financial website I have ever seen. And on top of that the fees were just annoying. I’m very glad I went through the process to move the accounts to Fidelity.

 

[explanade]

So the final tale about HSA.

I've been trying to get this transferred since April.

They repeatedly deny transfer request submitted through Fidelity.

Finally they tell me in mid July that they closed my account when I called in to ask why I was locked into my account.

They said check is on the way to me.

I find out a month later they sent the check to Fidelity.

The check is about $163 less than my last-known balance in June. These are Wellington and Total Stock admiral shares. They would have sold the shares around the end of June.

I have no idea where the discrepancy went.

In any event, I'm not calling them back. I haven't received a final statement and I can't go online to access transactions or statements.

It's an expensive lesson learned.

Just happy to be rid of them.

What a shady institution.

 

[audreyh1]

$25 of that was probably a fee for closing your account.

 

[simple girl]

So the final tale about HSA.

I've been trying to get this transferred since April.

Unreal how bad this has been for you. UGH!