Every Major HSA Provider Compared 2026: Fees, Investment Options, Cash Yields

Updated June 21, 2026

Quick Answer

Fidelity wins for most savers in 202678% cash yield on uninvested balances (per Fidelity's HSA interest rate disclosure, as of 4/30/2026), and lets you trade stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) commission-free. Health Equity and Optum can still be the right call when your employer payroll only deposits there and the 7.65% FICA savings on year-one contributions outweigh the fee drag while you set up a transfer schedule. HSA Bank fits the saver who already has a Schwab brokerage relationship and doesn't mind parking $1,000 in cash as a permanent floor.

Key Takeaways

• Best overall: Fidelity HSA — no fees, no investment threshold, the highest cash yield among major providers. - Best for fund-only investors: Lively HSA — clean Schwab brokerage option, but the $24/year fee waiver requires $3,000 in cash. - Best for employer-sponsored simplicity: Health Equity — widely supported, but its $3.95/month admin fee and 0.03%/month investment fee compound against you over time. - The market signal: The 10-Year Treasury yields 4.45% while the Effective Fed Funds Rate sits at 3.64% — a 0.81-point spread per FRED DGS10 and DFF series, as of 2026-05-28. When long rates run above the policy rate like this, the bond market is pricing in cuts. The takeaway for your HSA: any cash sitting at 0% APY is losing real ground every month, and most provider sweep accounts are doing exactly that.

Comparison Table

Sources: fidelity.com, healthequity.com, livelyme.com, hsabank.com, optum.com.

Recommended reading: Best For

The $93,000 Question

HSA assets grew 29x since 2006 to $146 billion in 2024 per Morningstar, then crossed $174 billion by year-end 2025 per Devenir. Nearly half (49%) of those dollars is now invested rather than sitting in cash. The market matured. Most provider fee schedules did not.

Here's the math behind the headline. A family maxing the 2026 HSA contribution of $8,750 (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-19), contributing monthly across a 30-year horizon at a 7% gross annual return, ends with roughly $890,000. Run the same scenario with a 0.50% annual fee drag — that is, a 6.50% net return — and the ending balance falls to about $797,000. The gap: $93,000. Assumptions matter, so here they are spelled out: $729.17 contributed at month-end, monthly compounding, no inflation adjustment on contributions. Move to plain end-of-year annual contributions and the same drag narrows the gap to about $71,000. Stretch the horizon to 35 years and it widens north of $130,000. The shape of the answer doesn't change — half a percent compounds into a midsize sedan over a working career.

That $93,000 is the payoff at stake when you pick a provider. It's a fully loaded Honda CR-V Hybrid plus most of the down payment on a second one. Run your own numbers, but understand what you're choosing.

Best For Picks

Best overall: Fidelity HSA. Zero monthly maintenance, zero investment minimum, full access to commission-free stocks and ETFs from day one. Fidelity has been ranked Morningstar's top HSA for seven straight years for a reason.

Best escape from an employer-mandated custodian: Lively HSA. If your employer routes contributions to Health Equity or Optum and won't change, Lively is the cleanest landing spot for a trustee-to-trustee transfer — modern app, paperless setup, and Schwab brokerage access once you clear the $3,000 cash floor. The Charles Schwab Health Savings Brokerage Account access fee is $24/year, waived with a $3,000 cash balance (livelyme.com).

Best for employer-sponsored convenience: Health Equity. The largest non-bank HSA custodian with over 8 million accounts, and it integrates cleanly with most employer payroll systems for the 7.65% FICA savings on contributions (1.45% Medicare-only above the Social Security wage base of $168,600). Just know what you're paying: $3.95/month admin (waived at $2,500 cash), 0.03%/month investment fee (capped $10), plus 0.05%/month for the Advisor managed option (healthequity.com fee schedule).

Fidelity HSA

Fidelity launched its individual HSA in November 2018 as the first major retail brokerage to offer one with no monthly fee, no investment minimum, and full self-directed trading. Seven years on, most rivals still don't match all three. Per fidelity.com, the account charges $0 monthly maintenance, requires $0 to begin investing, and supports stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and bonds commission-free on most assets.

The cash yield matters most. Uninvested balances sit in Fidelity Government Cash Reserves, which posted a 3.78% one-year return as of 4/30/2026 (Fidelity HSA interest rate disclosure). Compare that to the typical competitor cash account paying near 0% and the gap on a $20,000 cash balance is roughly $750 per year — for doing nothing.

Recommended reading: Fidelity Go

Pros:
- $0 fees across the board for self-directed accounts
- 100% of contributions investable from day one
- Cash yield vs. near-zero at most competitors
- Fidelity Go HSA managed option free under $25,000, then 0.35% annually

Cons:
- Employer-sponsored HSA contributions still must route through the employer's custodian first to capture FICA savings (then transfer)
- Customer service can feel like Big Brokerage, not boutique

Who should skip it: Almost no one. The only exception is a worker whose employer payroll deduction goes only to a mandated custodian and who refuses to set up periodic trustee-to-trustee transfers.

Health Equity

Health Equity is the default custodian for a large share of the American workforce — over 8 million accounts and integrations with most Fortune 500 payroll systems, which is why your enrollment paperwork probably listed it whether you asked for it or not. The fund menu itself is solid: a curated Vanguard lineup that keeps expense ratios low at the fund level. The wrapper around those funds is where the cost shows up.

The fee structure is where it gets expensive. The $3.95 monthly admin fee waives at a $2,500 cash balance, but the 0.03% monthly investment admin fee (capped at $10/month) keeps charging. The optional Health Equity Advisor managed service adds another 0.05% per month, capped at $15/month (healthequity.com). Cash earns 0.05%–0.35% APY across HealthEquity's balance tiers (rate schedule, as of 2026-05). On a $20,000 cash balance, that's roughly $10–$70 a year versus Fidelity's ~$750 at 3.78% — the same money, doing about 10x less work.

Pros:
- Massive scale and employer integration
- Solid Vanguard fund menu
- Clean mobile app for receipt tracking

Cons:
- Layered fees that keep charging even after the admin fee waives
- Mutual funds only (no individual stocks or ETFs)
- $25 account closure fee and $1/month paper statement fees flagged by the CFPB as common "unexpected fees" in HSAs

Who should skip it: Anyone with $25,000+ in their HSA who doesn't need employer payroll integration. The math overwhelmingly favors a transfer to Fidelity.

Lively HSA

Lively is the modern challenger — fully paperless, zero monthly fees for individuals, and a clean two-track investment menu: the Charles Schwab Health Savings Brokerage Account for self-directed investing ($24/year, waived above $3,000 cash) or the Devenir Guided Portfolio (0.50% annual AUM fee, debited quarterly), per livelyme.com.

The weakness is the cash yield. Lively pays 0.01% APY base, rising to 0.12% APY for balances over $10,000 (Lively rate schedule, as of 2026-05). That's a rounding error compared to Fidelity's headline rate. On $10,000 in idle cash, the yield gap costs roughly $366 per year.

Pros:
- $0 individual account fee
- Schwab self-directed brokerage with full ETF and stock access
- Best-in-class app and receipt vault
- Excellent customer support reputation

Cons:
- Near-zero cash yield (0.01%–0.12% APY)
- 0.50% AUM fee on the Devenir guided option is steep

Who should skip it: Anyone planning to keep large balances in cash. The yield drag will outweigh the fee savings versus Health Equity.

HSA Bank

HSA Bank eliminated its $2.50 monthly maintenance fee, which helps. But to invest, you still need a $1,000 cash minimum before excess funds can move to the Schwab brokerage window (hsabank.com). The cash yield is tiered and uncompetitive — generally below 0.50% APY at every balance level (HSA Bank rate schedule, as of 2026-05).

Pros:
- No monthly maintenance fee
- Schwab self-directed brokerage access (commission-free stocks and ETFs)
- Strong employer adoption in financial services and banking

Cons:
- $1,000 cash minimum permanently parked before any investing
- Tiered cash yield well below current Treasury rates
- Older web interface than Fidelity or Lively

Who should skip it: Anyone who wants every contribution dollar invested from day one. The $1,000 gate delays the most powerful tax move in personal finance.

Optum Bank

Optum charges $2.50/month admin fees for individual accounts until the balance hits $3,000, with a typical $2,000 investment threshold for employer-sponsored plans (per Optum's fee schedule). It's a common employer default, especially in healthcare and pharmacy benefit manager-tied plans, but it ranks at the bottom of every independent HSA review on fees and yield. Standard-tier cash balances earn 0.05% APY (Optum Bank rate disclosure, as of 2026-05).

Pros:
- Deep integration with UnitedHealthcare and Optum Rx plans
- Familiar to anyone already on a UHC plan card

Cons:
- $2.50/month admin fee until $3,000 cash balance
- 0.05% APY on standard cash tier — among the worst in this comparison
- Mutual funds only, with a curated lineup rather than open architecture

Who should skip it: Anyone who can move money out. Contribute via payroll to capture the FICA savings, then transfer to Fidelity every 6–12 months.

Pricing Breakdown

The Cash Yield Question Nobody Asks

The 10-Year Treasury yield is 481 percentage points per FRED data, as of 2026-05-28. The market expects rate cuts. That matters for your HSA because providers vary wildly in how fast they pass through rate changes on cash balances.

Fidelity's money market sweep tracks Treasury yields almost in real time. Most competitor bank-deposit cash accounts pass through changes slowly — and never to the upside. The gap between 3.78% and 0.10% on $15,000 in idle cash is $552 per year. Over 30 years, reinvested at 7%, that's roughly $52,000 in foregone wealth.

How Canopy Press Evaluated These HSAs

This comparison used five criteria: monthly maintenance fees, investment threshold, cash yield, investment management fees, and tradeable asset universe. Source data came directly from each provider's published fee schedule and interest rate disclosure as of May 2026. Some links in this article are affiliate links — we may earn a commission on accounts opened through them. That doesn't change the rankings; it's why we publish the underlying math. See the full methodology at /how-we-evaluate/.

Verdict

Fidelity wins. It's not close. Zero fees, zero investment threshold, a 3.78% cash yield on idle balances, and the broadest investment menu of any major provider make it the rational default for any HSA dollar that isn't legally trapped at an employer custodian.

Runner-up: Lively, for the cleanest user experience and a viable Schwab self-directed path. The runner-up wins only in one scenario — a saver who wants a modern app, plans to keep nearly all funds invested, and never wants to deal with Fidelity's broader retail brokerage interface.

If your employer mandates Health Equity or Optum, contribute via payroll to capture the 7.65% FICA savings, then execute a trustee-to-trustee transfer to Fidelity every 6–12 months. That's a 30-minute task that can compound into tens of thousands of dollars.

Sources

• IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-19 — irs.gov
• Fidelity HSA fee and interest rate disclosure — digital.fidelity.com
• HealthEquity fee schedule — healthequity.com
• Lively HSA pricing — livelyme.com/pricing
• HSA Bank — hsabank.com
• Optum Bank fee schedule — cdn.optum.com
• Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) 10-Year Treasury Yield — fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DGS10
• FRED Federal Funds Rate — fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FEDFUNDS
• Morningstar 2025 HSA Landscape Report — morningstar.com
• Devenir Research HSA Market Report — devenir.com

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This article is informational, not financial advice. Consult a licensed tax or financial professional before making decisions about your specific situation.

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Found an error? At Canopy Press, accuracy comes first. If you spot a claim that needs checking, let us know at [email protected] — we'll verify and correct it immediately.

Found an error? At Canopy Press, accuracy comes first. If you spot a claim that needs checking, let us know at [email protected] — we'll verify and correct it immediately.

Sources

• FRED - 10-Year Treasury Yield
• FRED - 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate
• FRED - Federal Funds Effective Rate
• FRED - Consumer Price Index (CPI)
• FRED - Unemployment Rate
• Yahoo Finance - S&P 500
• Yahoo Finance - 10-Year Treasury Yield (Market)
• Yahoo Finance - CBOE Volatility Index (VIX)
• Yahoo Finance - US Dollar Index
• Yahoo Finance - Gold Price (per oz)