“Advisors should look at reaching out to employers to help them better understand these benefits,” Goerner said. “Advisors need to help employers decouple these benefits from healthcare discussions and provide ongoing education about them throughout the year, especially since contribution limits are being raised for 2023.” Contribution limits will be $3,850 annually for an individual and $7,750 for a family, with an additional $1,000 allowed for an annual “catch-up” contribution.
There is a lot of room for improvement. “An overwhelming majority of respondents indicated worries over their ability to fund healthcare expenses in retirement,” the study said. “Despite this anxiety, only about half of our survey group [of more than 1,000 individuals] have taken the time to factor healthcare expenses into their plan. Among the group that hasn’t planned for health expenses, more than half say they have no financial plan for retirement at all.”
More employers are offering high-deductible healthcare plans, prompting employees to consider HSAs, and that makes education about the plans “more important than ever,” Goerner said.