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HSA & 401k, Better Together
This session is repeated at 2:45pm
Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2025 Beginning at 9:15 AM
Session Duration

Learning Objective
- When the 401k and HSA are offered separately, each has significant value. This session will demonstrate why the HSA is oftentimes superior to the Health FSA and 401k. However, all together, the three benefits offer significant synergy for workers of all ages, incomes, tenure, etc. - Confirm which should come first when it comes to saving – is it the 401k nest egg or the HSA Chicken? Learn how to accommodate both, including various transition processes, to best meet workers where they are, including the majority of American workers who live paycheck to paycheck. - Improve benefits engagement by demonstrating how employers and workers can lower current expenses yet improve preparation for retirement by using the 401k and HSA in combination, today and tomorrow.

Session Description
Are you one of the 100+MM workers whose employer denied them access to America’s most valuable tax preference? When it comes to your Total Rewards package, it is not what employees get that counts. It is what they get to keep, after taxes.

In 2025, the 401k had its’ 47th “anniversary”; while Health Savings Accounts celebrated their 22th “birthday”. However, most employers don’t offer either a 401k or HSA capable coverage. And, unless you offer both, neither program, by itself, will deliver optimal value.

The 401k and HSA are better together, where plan designs anticipate diverse financial capability/fragility.

Combined they meet almost all worker financial wellness / resilience needs.

Done right, the combination offers workers the best opportunity to become benefits Middle-Class Millionaires … Someday.

It is long past time to leverage the 401k’s superior asset accumulation capability by coupling it with the HSA’s superior utility – capable of quadruple duty.

Session Speaker

Jack Towarnicky

Koehler Fitzgerald LLC

More About Jack Towarnicky

Jack Towarnicky serves as an ERISA attorney, Koehler Fitzgerald, LLC, Cleveland Ohio.  Previously, Jack held corporate benefits leadership positions in plan sponsor roles at four Fortune 500 firms - Nationwide, Tenneco, Cooper Industries and Marathon.  Nationally recognized - Plan Sponsor of the Year, Benefits Manager of the Year, etc. Education:  LLM - Employee Benefits, JD, MBA, BBA-Business Economics.