Empower Retirement and Optum launch innovative, integrated HSA solution for retirement plan participants

New health and retirement savings solution incorporates HSA balances into retirement income projections, giving a holistic view of retirement preparedness

Available this summer to employers to help their employees plan for their future

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., March 28, 2017 — Empower Retirement, the nation’s second-largest retirement plan provider, and health services leader Optum today launched an innovative health savings account (HSA) for retirement plan participants – The Empower Health Savings Account.

Available this summer to employers, the Empower Health Savings Account will provide plan participants access to an online seamless financial-planning solution that integrates retirement savings with healthcare savings, helping them prepare for healthcare expenses in retirement. The Empower-Optum tool will provide access to investment advice and retirement planning resources that bring together an individual’s health and retirement portfolio to help them understand their options to cover healthcare costs and maximize their savings across tax-advantaged programs.

The Empower HSA plan will enable participants to see and understand the gaps in their retirement plan and develop a strategy to take action, including health plan selection and enrollment, retirement plan management, inclusion of wellness programs and health savings account management, an otherwise daunting task with disparate HSA and retirement plan providers. Optum and Empower’s technology and planning tools integrate the HSA and the retirement plans to provide analysis and forecasting of the participant’s retirement preparedness.

“Healthcare in retirement can be a considerable expense and one that makes retirement planning more challenging. The Empower Health Savings Account can help people prepare for that challenge,” said Edmund F. Murphy III, president of Empower Retirement. “In this exclusive collaboration with Optum, the nation’s largest HSA provider, we’re taking retirement healthcare planning and saving to the next level.”

“This new HSA offering can help consumers create affordability today as well as in retirement,” said Deborah Culhane, senior vice president of Optum. “Our collaboration with Empower enables us to deliver the tools and experiences that our customers want and need to make the best use of their healthcare savings.”

The Empower participant website helps people better understand their future savings needs. The site’s design and functionality is based on years of analyzing factors that drive participant behavior. Empower data shows that participants in defined-contribution retirement plans tend to take action when offered personalized tools and information to help them understand specific factors relating to their retirement preparedness.

Through the Empower HSA, employers will gain a way to help their employees plan for their future. They will have access to aggregated retirement readiness information, including the retirement plan and health savings account data. Employers will also benefit from streamlined administration through a dedicated partner, and integrated tools and services.

Murphy noted that Empower was the first retirement plan provider to offer plan participants the ability to project their healthcare expenses in retirement through the company’s Health Cost Estimator and is continuing that strategy by introducing a solution that helps people understand how their health affects their wealth.

About Optum:

Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. With more than 100,000 people worldwide, Optum delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize the health system and improve overall population health. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH).

About Empower Retirement:

Headquartered in metro Denver, Empower Retirement administers $475 billion in assets for 8.2 million participants. It is the nation’s second-largest retirement plan recordkeeper by total participants (Pensions & Investments, April 2016). Empower serves all segments of the employer-sponsored retirement plan market: government 457 plans, small, midsize, and large corporate 401(k) clients, non-profit 403(b) entities and private-label recordkeeping clients. For more information, please visit www.Empower-Retirement.com.

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.

Learn More

To learn more about how we’re empowering plan sponsors and their participants to be more engaged in their retirement plans than ever before, call us at 800-719-9914.

Empower Retirement refers to the products and services offered in the retirement markets by Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company (GWL&A), Corporate Headquarters: Greenwood Village, CO; Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company of New York , Home Office: White Plains, NY; and their subsidiaries. The trademarks, logos, service marks, and design elements used are owned by GWL&A.