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Hello Bogleheads,

I recently started a new job and I have the opportunity to sign up for an HSA and I was all excited to do it with Fidelity, but another new employee signed up a week before me and she said it was going to be WEX, which I've never heard of before. My questions are: does anyone have experience with WEX and can you tell me what I may expect and what options I may have for investing, (Vanguard funds available???). Second question, does this WEX thing mean I'll have to use WEX or would I be allowed to have the HSA elsewhere, (kinda guessing that's a NO at this point.). Anyway, excited to hear your thoughts.

You can choose any custodian you like for your HSA. If you want to contribute via payroll deduction, you will likely be stuck with WEX. Even if you do go the payroll deduction route, you might want to roll over once a year to Fidelity for better investment options.

Note that if you contribute to an HSA via payroll deduction, you dodge the FICA (social security and medicare) taxes on the amount contributed. You will lose out on that tax break if you contribute outside your employer's HSA provider. SS is 6.2% and is not an issue if you will be over the annual income limit. Medicare is 1.45%.

My HSA is administered by WEX. It is partnered with TD Ameritrade and you can buy any ETF for no fee.

My current HSA is also administered by WEX (formerly named Discovery Benefits). No complaints really.

As mentioned above, I'll be moving it over to my Fidelity HSA (either incrementally or when I'm done working) to avoid ongoing fees.

Thanks all, this is super helpful. This may end up being me using WEX for now and moving it to Fidelity in the future. Thank you all!

Svensk Anga wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 11:32 am You can choose any custodian you like for your HSA. If you want to contribute via payroll deduction, you will likely be stuck with WEX. Even if you do go the payroll deduction route, you might want to roll over once a year to Fidelity for better investment options.

Note that if you contribute to an HSA via payroll deduction, you dodge the FICA (social security and medicare) taxes on the amount contributed. You will lose out on that tax break if you contribute outside your employer's HSA provider. SS is 6.2% and is not an issue if you will be over the annual income limit. Medicare is 1.45%.

So this brings up a new question: Are periodic rollovers allowed while still employed at current employer?? And if that's a YES, is this the same for 401Ks??? - #gamechanger!!!!

opticyellow wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:42 pm Are periodic rollovers allowed while still employed at current employer??

They are allowed if the employer allows them. Some do, some don't.

opticyellow wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:42 pm

Svensk Anga wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 11:32 am You can choose any custodian you like for your HSA. If you want to contribute via payroll deduction, you will likely be stuck with WEX. Even if you do go the payroll deduction route, you might want to roll over once a year to Fidelity for better investment options.

Note that if you contribute to an HSA via payroll deduction, you dodge the FICA (social security and medicare) taxes on the amount contributed. You will lose out on that tax break if you contribute outside your employer's HSA provider. SS is 6.2% and is not an issue if you will be over the annual income limit. Medicare is 1.45%.

So this brings up a new question: Are periodic rollovers allowed while still employed at current employer?? And if that's a YES, is this the same for 401Ks??? - #gamechanger!!!!

I did do annual rollovers from my employer's HSA to another, cheaper custodian. I think in-service rollovers of 401k are rarely allowed.

Had Wex previously and I transferred every six months to Fidelity. I had to have the HSA there as that is where the employer contributions went.

atomicrc11 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 3:22 pm Had Wex previously and I transferred every six months to Fidelity. I had to have the HSA there as that is where the employer contributions went.

So happy to hear this, I didn't even realize this could be a possibility. Question then: did you keep the money pretty liquid while in WEX until moved over to Fidelity?

I just rolled most of my HealthEquity HSA to Fidelity. I left the minimum in Health Equity to keep it open for payroll deductions.

The only downside was it was done by Health Equity mailing a check to Fidelity. It took a few weeks of being out the market to complete.

It was mentioned once, but I think it's worth repeating that you are not required to use the employer's HSA exclusively. The employer's contributions will go to WEX and you may or may not be able to roll them out periodically, as you noted.

You can choose to make additional payroll deductions into the WEX account, contribute directly to your own HSA elsewhere (potentially losing some SS tax benefits but still deducting from fed and state income), or with some employers you can specify your own payroll deductions to the external HSA.

dukeblue219 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 7:45 am It was mentioned once, but I think it's worth repeating that you are not required to use the employer's HSA exclusively. The employer's contributions will go to WEX and you may or may not be able to roll them out periodically, as you noted.

You can choose to make additional payroll deductions into the WEX account, contribute directly to your own HSA elsewhere (potentially losing some SS tax benefits but still deducting from fed and state income), or with some employers you can specify your own payroll deductions to the external HSA.

And if I go the route of periodic rollovers into Fidelity, is there a time of year or times of year when I would do this in particular? Thank you!

401k plans have a lot of regulations that must be adhered to, particularly with highly compensated employees. I've not heard of any 401k plan that allows transfers out while employed because it would interfere with the metrics that plans have to track in order for the 401k plan to be compliant.

I don't know if HSAs have similar requirements.

I did the transfers in January and July but that was just my choice. My plan did not require a minimum balance so I transferred everything and kept it in cash as there was a $2000 minimum to invest anything. It's best to keep it in cash because if the funds were in equity you would have to liquidate to move them anyway.

For HSA's check your plan docs, but many allow you to transfer out. In my case there was no fee. If you do a trustee to trustee transfer you can do do as many transfers as you like. If you do a rollover, which is where the funds are sent to you directly and you deposit them into an HSA you can only do one per year.

My employer uses WEX for HSA. There’s some Vanguard mutual funds in their line up. But they charged me $18/ quarter as administrative fee. Plus they have a non existent customer service. I transferred my investment portion to Fidelity. But i have to keep the account open since i’m doing a payroll deduction for contribution. Per Fidelity, any fees that WEX will charge me for the transfer will be reimburse by them. The money is in route to Fidelity. Today, it will be 7 business days since i initiated the transfer.

I have Wex and hate them. I refuse to invest anything with them because of the high investment expenses. Once a year all the cash gets rolled over to Fidelity.

OuterBanks wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 5:39 pm I have Wex and hate them. I refuse to invest anything with them because of the high investment expenses. Once a year all the cash gets rolled over to Fidelity.

So you keep it all liquid while at WEX, then at the end of the year do the transfer?

Bradley37 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 4:03 pm My employer uses WEX for HSA. There’s some Vanguard mutual funds in their line up. But they charged me $18/ quarter as administrative fee. Plus they have a non existent customer service. I transferred my investment portion to Fidelity. But i have to keep the account open since i’m doing a payroll deduction for contribution. Per Fidelity, any fees that WEX will charge me for the transfer will be reimburse by them. The money is in route to Fidelity. Today, it will be 7 business days since i initiated the transfer.

How long have you been in WEX and how many transfers have you done like this?

opticyellow wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:55 pm

Bradley37 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 26, 2023 4:03 pm My employer uses WEX for HSA. There’s some Vanguard mutual funds in their line up. But they charged me $18/ quarter as administrative fee. Plus they have a non existent customer service. I transferred my investment portion to Fidelity. But i have to keep the account open since i’m doing a payroll deduction for contribution. Per Fidelity, any fees that WEX will charge me for the transfer will be reimburse by them. The money is in route to Fidelity. Today, it will be 7 business days since i initiated the transfer.

How long have you been in WEX and how many transfers have you done like this?

This is the first time that i'm doing it. I was in WEX for at least 10 months. It took 12 business days for the transfer to appear in my Fidelity HSA.