for the HSA market
HealthEquity Advisors, LLC is an SEC-registered investment advisor and a wholly-owned subsidiary of HealthEquity, Inc. We provide fiduciary, research and advisory services to HSA administrators and to HSA account-holders over the web.*
Download form ADV brochureServices offered
Our investment advisory services are designed to help you invest the assets in the qualifying health savings account (“HSA”) that you maintain with our parent company, HealthEquity, Inc. (“HealthEquity”). You may want to choose our investment advisory services if you seek guidance on how to diversify your investments amongst the funds available on HealthEquity’s platform to manage risk and maximize growth potential. We provide advice through a web-based automated investment advisor, which we refer to as “Advisor.”
Before choosing our investment advisory services, you should consider the amount of cash maintained in your HealthEquity HSA. Generally, you must have at least $2,000 in your HealthEquity HSA, and you are only permitted to invest HSA balances above that threshold. Your specific threshold for investing is shown on the signup page accessed through HealthEquity’s member portal. The advice we provide is dependent on your personal risk profile determined by our web-based interactive questionnaire (the “Questionnaire”), but all investments available to HSA holders are subject to risk and are not FDIC insured or guaranteed by HealthEquity or its subsidiaries. You should consider these risks before choosing an investment advisory service, and consider whether you can afford the possible loss of the principal invested. To learn more about investing, choosing an investment adviser, and related considerations, please review the general information provided by the Securities and Exchange Commission here.
Before choosing among our various investment advisory services, you should consider your financial situation, your investment knowledge, and other relevant factors. We choose investments to recommend to you based on model asset allocation portfolios and each model portfolio is designed to meet a particular investment goal. Rather than focusing primarily on securities selection, we construct the portfolios based on asset allocation strategies that we believe include an appropriate ratio of diversified investments. We have different portfolios that are suitable for different types of investment goals, time horizons, and risk tolerances. Our models are typically designed with a view towards you holding individual investments for at least one year. We take this approach, among other reasons, because we may want exposure to a particular asset class over time, regardless of the current projection for this class, or because we believe the price of certain securities held by a fund are undervalued. Nevertheless, our allocation models may also recommend purchases of funds with the idea of selling them within a relatively short period of time (typically one year or less). We follow this approach to take advantage of conditions that we believe will soon result in a price swing in the securities that we recommend or the securities held by a mutual fund that we recommend.
Our “AutoPilot” program is a discretionary advisory program, which means we pick investments for your account and implement those investments without obtaining your approval for each investment. Autopilot may be appropriate for you if you seek a full-service investment advisory option. Through the AutoPilot program, we establish a risk profile for you based on your responses to the Questionnaire, and our algorithmic software recommends a risk-weighted model portfolio based on your responses. Once a model portfolio is selected, your account is managed based on the model portfolio’s objectives, and we purchase and sell investments that match the portfolio composition generated by our algorithmic software. Your account is managed and rebalanced automatically through the algorithmic software. We monitor your account to ensure that it continues to be managed in a manner suitable to your financial circumstances, as outlined in your responses to the Questionnaire.
Our “GPS” program is a non-discretionary advisory program, which means we recommend investments, but you make the ultimate decisions about which investments to hold. The GPS program may be appropriate for you if you seek investment advice, but prefer to make decisions on your own about the purchase or sale of individual investments. Through the GPS program, we establish a risk profile for you based on your responses to the Questionnaire and our algorithmic software recommends a risk-weighted model portfolio based on your responses. Unlike the AutoPilot program where we implement your investments for you, with the GPS program, you decide whether to make investments that match the portfolio composition generated by the algorithmic software. We do not monitor accounts that participate in the GPS program.
Our advisory services are provided exclusively through our web-based platform, but our senior business leaders have over 20 years of experience as investment professionals and hold Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®) and Accredit Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) certifications. Our investment committee, who oversees selection and rotation of investments made available in HealthEquity’s fund lineups, also includes outside consultants and mutual fund industry experts.
The following examples are intended to help you determine the fees, costs, and expenses associated with giving us $10,000 to invest. Depending on the investment advisory service you choose, you will incur an advisory fee charged by us, administration fees charged by our affiliates for the administration and safekeeping (i.e., custody) of your assets, as well as fees and expenses charged by the fund in which you invest. We reserve the right to change our advisory fee and administration fee at any time. The fees and expenses charged by mutual funds vary by fund, and can be found in the applicable fund’s prospectus. These examples assume your investments provide an annual return of 5.00%, that the fees, costs and expenses remain as stated in the table, and that the fees and expenses charged by each fund in which you invest are the same. Although your actual fees, costs, and expenses may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your annual fees, costs, and expenses would be:
| Investment Option | AutoPilot | GPS |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Advisory Fee (monthly fee cap of $15) |
0.60% | 0.60% |
| HealthEquity’s Annual Administration Fees+ (monthly fee cap of $10) |
0.36% | 0.36% |
| Annual Mutual Fund Fees and Expenses * | 0.087% | 0.087% |
| Total Annual Fees, Costs, and Expenses | $107.58 | $107.58 |
+ HealthEquity does not charge administration fees for investments in certain funds available through the HealthEquity platform. Instead, these funds generally charge higher annual fees and expenses and indirectly share a portion of those fees and expenses with our affiliates.
* This is an average expense ratio for mutual funds offered on HealthEquity’s platform and for which we provide advice to HSA holders as of December 31st, 2023.
For non-employer-based subscriptions, you will pay the fee disclosed above. For employer-based subscriptions, the amount and structure of the advisory fee is negotiable by the employer and will be a percentage of assets under our management or we charge the employer a fee that varies based on either the estimated number of employees to be included on the platform, actual employees included on the platform in the recent past, or the total invested assets of the employer’s HSA participants. Depending on the arrangement your employer has established, you will pay the fee or your employer will pay the fee. Therefore, the advisory fee that you or your employer pays may vary from the fee disclosed above. If you pay the advisory fee and give us $10,000 to invest, we expect that your total annual fees, costs, and expenses will not exceed the total annual fees, costs, and expenses indicated above. If your employer pays the annual advisory fee and you give us $10,000 to invest, you will not pay us an advisory fee, but you will still pay mutual fund fees and expenses and administration fees. Based on the assumptions stated above, if your employer pays the annual advisory fee, your total annual fees, costs, and expenses on a $10,000 investment would be $46.20.
We will tell you the amount of your fee when you sign up for services, and your fee amount is available on your client profile page in our web portal.
You will pay fees, costs, and expenses whether you make or lose money on your investments. Fees, costs, and expenses will reduce any amount of money you make on your investments over time. Please make sure you understand what fees, costs, and expenses you are paying. Detailed information about our advisory fees, costs, and expenses can be found in our brochure.
Our conflicts of interest might affect the type of funds that we make available on the HealthEquity platform, or affect the way that we recommend certain funds to you for investment. For example, our affiliates receive additional direct or indirect compensation as a result of the advisory services that we provide, including the administration fees that our affiliates charge for administering and safekeeping your investments. Our investment recommendations are also generally limited to the mutual funds available through HealthEquity's platform, and our affiliates earn more in administration fees the more you invest in those mutual funds. Conflicts of interest also arise when certain non-advisory activities require a significant time commitment from our employees, thus limiting the amount of time they can dedicate to management of the algorithms and methods used to manage client accounts. Moreover, the sharing of physical office space, personnel, and/or information technology systems with certain of our affiliates results in the sharing of confidential and/or personally identifiable client information with these affiliates.
Since we seek at all times to put your interests first as part of our fiduciary duty as a registered investment adviser, we take the following steps to address conflicts of interest:
Our financial professionals do not have any disciplinary history. You may use a free and simple search tool to research us and our financial professionals here.
Although our advisory services are provided exclusively through our web-based platform, you are encouraged to contact the HealthEquity member services team at (866) 346-5800 for help in general questions and navigating the website, or by emailing [email protected] to discuss any questions or concerns you have about our advisory services.