Retirement

Health savings accounts (HSAs) were created as a savings vehicle to help people pay out-of-pocket medical expenses. If qualified, you can establish an HSA in much the same way you establish a traditional savings account or an individual retirement account. You can open one with a lump-sum payment or through regular contributions, usually through paycheck deductions.

What makes HSAs appealing is that they offer several valuable tax-saving features. For example, your contributions are excluded from deductible income, all account earnings accumulate tax free, and, as long as the medical expenses paid with HSA savings are “qualified” expenses for you, your spouse, or your dependents, withdrawals from HSAs are tax free also. It is these tax savings features plus the ability to invest contributions in longer term assets that can make HSAs viable as alternative retirement savings vehicles.

Before looking into how HSAs can be used to save for retirement, it can be helpful to explain how they actually work.

The Rules on Contributions

The maximum family contribution for 2024 is $8,300 plus a $1,000 maximum catch-up contribution for participants who are age 55 or more. For self-only coverage, the maximum contribution for 2024 is $4,150 plus a $1,000 catch-up contribution for those participants age 55 or more. The limits will be adjusted for inflation in future years. An individual’s employer or family member may contribute as long as the total contribution amount does not exceed the annual limit.

Investing Contributions

As a participant in an HSA, you have the choice of keeping contributions in cash or investing them in other assets, such as stock and bond mutual funds.* Money not spent on qualified expenses during the year is rolled over for subsequent years. If you are in fairly good health and underutilize medical and health services, you could potentially build up a relatively large balance in the HSA account over several years.

Making HSAs Work as Retirement Savings Vehicles

If you currently maximize contributions to all tax-favored retirement accounts and also save in taxable accounts, you could treat the HSA as one more option to increase your savings and do so in a tax-favored way. Essentially, you would treat the HSA as a retirement savings account and allow the assets in the account to accumulate for as long as possible while paying out-of-pocket medical costs with taxable funds. Of course, this approach does not work if you cannot fully fund all your tax-advantaged retirement savings vehicles.

Remember, each person’s situation is different and you will benefit from discussing this option — and other retirement savings options — with an experienced financial professional

Once a retirement savings plan has been approved and is in place, it’s tempting to sit back and adopt an “I’m done,” hands-off attitude. However, to ensure that a plan will continue to operate effectively, employers should periodically review plan provisions and features. Here are some points to check.

• How the plan is presented. The more convinced employees are of the wisdom of saving for retirement, the greater the level of employee participation. The greater the participation, the more the plan can benefit all employees — including highly compensated ones. Regular meetings, newsletters, and handouts are effective means of communicating plan advantages. Check to make sure printed materials are up to date and easy to understand, and distribute them frequently.
• Plan investments. Employers that sponsor participant-directed plans can limit potential legal liability for losses caused by employees’ investment decisions if plan investment choices meet certain requirements under Section 404(c). Very generally, where 404(c) protection is sought, a plan should offer at least three “core” investment choices, allow employees to switch investments at least once each quarter, and provide participants with adequate disclosure of specified investment information.
• Administration. Participants and beneficiaries must be given a copy of the Summary Plan Description (SPD) within 120 days after a plan is adopted or within 90 days after becoming eligible to participate in the plan or receive benefits. Review the SPD to make sure it accurately describes the provisions of your plan. If changes have been made to the plan document — which is likely, given the recent tax law changes — then all participants must receive a notification of these changes within 210 days after the end of the plan year in which the changes were adopted. Generally, all participants must receive a copy of the SPD every five years.
• Summary annual reports (SARs). Summary annual reports must be distributed to participants within nine months after the close of the plan year. If a plan receives an extension to file its annual report (Form 5500) with the IRS, then the SAR must be distributed within two months after the end of the extension.
• Plan rollovers. Qualified plans must allow a participant to elect direct rollover of any eligible distribution to an IRA or another employer-sponsored retirement plan. Your plan should have procedures in place to handle direct rollovers.
• Bonding. Generally, plan fiduciaries and others who handle the assets of a plan must be bonded. The bond must be equal to at least 10% of the funds handled by the bonded individual, but cannot be for less than $1,000 and need not be for more than $500,000.
• Loans to participants. Loans that are not properly administered may be treated as constructive distributions resulting in taxable income to the recipients. Review loans to make sure that loan balances do not exceed the maximum limitations. Unless used to finance the purchase of a principal residence, all loans must be repaid within five years. A plan may impose more stringent conditions on loans than the law requires.
• Plan forms. All forms should meet current requirements. Forms that may need updating include beneficiary designation forms, benefit election forms, and the notice of distribution options.

As plan sponsors are well aware, the pension law (ERISA) includes specific reporting and disclosure obligations with respect to qualified retirement plans. A lesser known fact is that ERISA also has specific requirements regarding the retention of plan records. Below we answer questions you and other plan sponsors may have about retaining records and the importance of a record retention policy.

Why would we need a record retention policy? A retirement plan, by its very nature, generates a large amount of documentation. Some records should be retained indefinitely. Others may be disposed of in time. Having an established document retention system that allows plan records to be reviewed, updated, and preserved or disposed of in an organized fashion fosters good administration and helps the plan comply with pension law. Such a system can also make required documents readily accessible for IRS review, if requested.

Who is responsible for retaining plan records? Under ERISA, the plan administrator — which is often the plan sponsor — is ultimately responsible for maintaining the plan’s records.

What records do we need to keep? The list is long. First, you need to keep all records that support the information included in your plan’s Form 5500 filings and other reports and disclosures. These supporting documents essentially include whatever records a government auditor might need to verify the accuracy of the original report or disclosure. You also need to keep records used to determine eligibility for plan participation and any plan benefits to which employees and beneficiaries may be entitled. Records include:

• The original signed and dated plan document, plus all original signed and dated plan amendments
• Employee communications including summary plan descriptions (SPDs), summaries of material modifications (SMMs), and anything else describing the plan that you provide to plan participants
• The determination, advisory, or opinion letter for the plan
• All financial reports
• Copies of Form 5500
• Payroll records used to determine eligibility and contributions, including details supporting any exclusions from participation
• Evidence of the plan’s fidelity bond
• Documentation supporting the trust’s ownership of the plan’s assets
• Documents relating to plan loans, withdrawals, and distributions
• Nondiscrimination and coverage test results
• Employee personal information, such as name, Social Security number, date of birth, and marital/family status
• Employment history, including hire, termination, and rehire dates (as applicable) and termination details
• Officer and ownership history and familial relationships
• Election forms for deferral amount, investment direction, beneficiary designation, and distribution request
• Transactional history of contributions and distributions

How long do we need to keep the records? Generally, you should keep records used for IRS and DOL filings for at least six years after the filing date. Retain records relevant to the determination of benefit entitlement indefinitely (basically, permanently).