Hi Kerry, first, full disclosure, I am a bank that offers HSAs as a product so I know some of the competitors fees (at least the national ones).  There are a ton of options out there as it relates to HSA and even more options if you combine how they work with employers and any discounting they may offer.   As an employer, we only offer HDHPs-we went full replacement in 2016.  As a result, we decided we are waiving all fees for our employees.  We have two different accounts-one a premium account that has a ton of value added services like credit card monitoring, etc.  that costs more for us, but we chose to provide that account free to our employees.  And yes, the account fees do impact the Federal maximum contribution if the employee is paying for them.   

Check out www.HSAsearch.com   they have some competitors listed there-it is a site hosted by Devenir, an HSA centric investment firm.   This will only give you their retail pricing so if you are an employer of any size, or if your balances are higher, you may have some leverage to negotiate some of those fees.   Many accounts, like our core product, have a minimum that if it is met, the fee is waived. 

 There are many choices for HSAs and there are even local banks that offer these accounts and credit unions, and most times they are free, they just don't have many bells and whistles for that product.  If you are multi state, it's a little tougher to find options that aren't a larger company.   Can your benefit broker offer you a list of HSA resources that you can use to start your search with?  We use McGohan Brabender and when we first looked at these options, they provided a huge spreadsheet of options we could look at to start our search with.

I'd be happy to speak to you in general about what I know, and I promise it won't be a sales pitch! 

Anna Kissick
Director of HSA Sales
Liberty Health Bank
937-234-4247  direct
120 W 2nd St.  Dayton OH, 45424
Liberty Health Bank is a trademark of Liberty Savings Bank, Member FDIC

These are great questions Kerry!

HSA Accounts typically have some fees associated it with it, but there are instances where fees can be waived. It really comes down to the HSA provider you like, whether that be a traditional banking institution or a strict HSA/FSA provider.  With the monthly fees, that is usually paid for by the employee since it is tied to their account.

When it comes to the one-time fee, I typically have seen there are fees to open the account on the company level, and hear less about a set up fee per account.  However, most companies who use a provider who does have that set up fee, typically will pay that fee as an added bonus (and possible tax deduction) for that particular fee.

The employee fees do not impact the federal maximum contribution.

If you do have any more questions, please feel free to follow up with me at rmount@langgroup.com

Hope that helps!

Hi Kerry,

I didn't want you to have any confusion.  Ryan from the above post is absolutely correct, the employee fees do not impact the federal maximum contribution. 

I read your question too fast and interpreted it incorrectly so I wanted to support his answer. 

Maximum contributions and fees are completely separate.  Account fees, if the employee is responsible for them, are typically withdrawn from the account.  The employee cannot increase the annual contribution to pay for the fees for the year.  Sorry for any confusion I may have caused!  anna.kissick@libertysavingsbank.com

Hi Kerry

I am the benefits administrator for over 1300 employees.  Our employees are not assessed any fees for their account.  I've never heard of a one time fee to set up the account, that's usually waived when you negotiate the contract with the provider.  In regards to the monthly fees, we pay that each month for the active employees.  Now when they leave the company we no longer pay the fee for them and it goes to a retail account not a group account.

If you have any other questions let me know!