Holders of health savings accounts are not justunderutilizing HSAs by not saving enough in them, they’re alsonot capitalizing on what could be their greatest feature:investing.
So says a report from the Employee Benefit ResearchInstitute, which reviews the trends in HSA usage from 2011–2016.Its database of 5.5 million accounts, with total assets of $11.4billion as of Dec. 31, 2016, reveals that the average accountholder apparently uses his HSA more as a specialized checkingaccount, instead of as an investment account.
The full report, which looks at account balances, individual andemployer contributions, distributions, invested assets andaccount-owner demographics for the period, finds that although HSAs“offer a valuable tax incentive to set aside money on a tax-favoredbasis for current or future medical expenses,” the majority ofaccount holders are only using them for basic current expenses,such as deductibles, coinsurance and copayments.
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