Empower Retirement Makes Saving for Healthcare and Retirement Easier
Firm unveils integrated ‘health and wealth’ experience to simplify and clarify savings priorities
New paper lays out strategy for maximizing retirement and health savings accounts
Empower has deployed a new approach that expands its interactive technology to allow plan sponsors and participants to see in a glance what their projected healthcare costs may be in retirement and how it compares with the projected balances in their HSA.
“Employees are discovering the power of using HSAs as a vehicle for savings. These accounts have grown exponentially over the past several years and we are seeing balances building,” said Edmund F. Murphy III, President of Empower. “Having dollars set aside in this way provides the opportunity for many Americans to effectively manage what is likely to be one of the largest expenses in retirement.”
The improved and streamlined Empower experience offers:
- A holistic view of a participant’s retirement readiness, using a numeric estimation of the percentage of working income an individual is on track to replace in retirement and based on numerous financial factors
- Technology that makes it easier for participants to adjust their deferral with a simple click and send those changes straight to payroll departments
- HSA utilization, blending data of prior year contributions and annual estimates
- Payroll integration, which simplifies administration for sponsors
This interactive technology allows employees to think about retirement in categories and visualize which part of their savings will be allocated to which expense category. HSAs can make a substantial difference in savers’ ability to fund their expenses in retirement.
Murphy explained that the updated interface is designed to minimize the administrative burden on the part of employers.
The interactive technology builds on Empower’s innovative HSA, the Empower Health Savings Account, which launched in
A 2017 survey2 of 2,000
The survey results also showed that respondents who use an HSA are more confident than others in their ability to cover healthcare expenses in retirement by a margin of 9 percent (43 vs. 34 percent).
New paper clarifies how to optimize the use of an HSA
The Empower Retirement-developed savings optimization model is laid out in a white paper, “The New Rx for Retirement,” which can be found at
“It’s all about providing insights on what employees need to save,” said
“We want to help employees understand the best way to use their health savings accounts and to begin saving specifically for their healthcare expenses in retirement,” Forsythe said.
More information about saving for retirement healthcare expenses and the Empower HSA can be discovered on the company’s website.
1 Information refers to all retirement business of
2 Source: “2017 Empower Consumer Thought Leadership: Health Savings Account Excerpts” conducted by
About HSAs: An HSA is a medical savings account available to taxpayers who are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan. When used for qualified medical expenses, the funds within an account are not subject to federal income tax. HSA funds roll over and accumulate year to year and are owned by the participant. Unlike a flexible savings account that’s used for spend-as-you-go expenses, an HSA is designed to help workers save additional funds for healthcare needs in retirement.
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Source: Empower Retirement
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