To transfer your HSA from Optum to Fidelity, open a Fidelity HSA, sell any invested funds at Optum so your balance sits in cash, then use Fidelity’s online transfer tool to request a trustee-to-trustee transfer. Fidelity contacts Optum on your behalf and pulls the money directly into your new account. The full process takes about two to five weeks, and you don’t need to be enrolled in a high-deductible health plan to receive the transfer.
What to Do Before You Start
Three things need to be in place before you log into Fidelity’s transfer tool.
First, open a Fidelity HSA if you don’t already have one. It takes a few minutes at Fidelity.com, there’s no minimum, and Fidelity doesn’t require you to be currently enrolled in an HDHP to open the account for the purpose of receiving a transfer.
Second, pull a recent Optum statement. You’ll upload it during the request, and it confirms your account ownership and Optum’s mailing address. Grab your Optum account number from the same statement or from your online dashboard.
Third, and this is the step most people miss: sell your investments at Optum. HSA providers, Optum included, only transfer cash. Anything sitting in mutual funds has to be liquidated first, and Optum won’t do it for you. Log into Optum, go to “Sell Investments,” and choose “Liquidate Entire Portfolio.” If you have automatic investments turned on, pause them first under “Manage Automatic Investments,” or Optum will sweep your cash right back into funds and you’ll be chasing your own tail. Give the sale a business day or two to settle before starting the transfer.
Submitting the Transfer Request on Fidelity’s Site
Log into your Fidelity HSA and find the option to transfer assets from another provider. The tool walks you through four stages:
- You submit the request, entering Optum Bank’s name and address, your Optum account number, and uploading your recent statement.
- Fidelity sends the transfer request to Optum electronically. You don’t call Optum or fill out separate paperwork.
- Optum verifies the account, deducts its fee, and sends the remaining cash balance to Fidelity.
- Fidelity deposits the money into your HSA’s core cash position, where it waits until you invest it.
Make sure the name on your Fidelity HSA matches your Optum account exactly. Even a missing middle initial can trigger a rejection that adds weeks.
Timeline and the Optum Fee
Plan on two to five weeks from the day you submit. Delays usually happen on Optum’s side during verification and processing.
Optum charges a $20 outbound transfer fee, deducted from your balance before the money leaves. Fidelity charges nothing to receive it. If a small stray amount posts to Optum after the main transfer (a final interest payment, a late employer contribution), Optum typically sends a follow-up payment a few weeks later. Watch both accounts until Optum shows a zero balance.
Once the cash lands at Fidelity, it stays in the core cash position. It won’t invest itself unless you’ve set up a Fidelity Go managed HSA. Choose your investments once the money arrives; leaving it in cash defeats the reason you moved it.
Trustee-to-Trustee Transfer vs. 60-Day Rollover
There are two legal ways to move HSA money between providers, and the online Fidelity process uses the safer one by default.
Trustee-to-Trustee Transfer
The money goes straight from Optum to Fidelity without ever passing through your hands. There’s no annual limit on how many you can do, and the IRS doesn’t treat it as a distribution. No 1099-SA, no entry on your tax return. This is the right choice for almost everyone.
60-Day Rollover
Optum sends a check to you, and you deposit it into your Fidelity HSA within 60 days. You can only do this once every 12 months. Miss the 60-day window and the IRS treats the whole amount as a taxable distribution plus a 20% penalty. Unless you have a specific reason to hold the funds temporarily, skip this method.
Redirecting Payroll Contributions
The transfer moves your current balance. It does not redirect future employer payroll contributions, which will keep flowing to Optum unless you take a separate step.
Ask HR or your benefits team to send your HSA payroll contributions to Fidelity instead. They’ll need Fidelity’s routing number, 101205681, and your Fidelity HSA account number from your Account Summary page. Some employers handle it through a benefits portal, others through a form. Expect one to two pay cycles for the change to take effect.
Some employers only allow contributions to a specific HSA provider. If that’s your situation, you have two options. Keep a small balance at Optum to receive payroll, then periodically transfer the accumulated cash to Fidelity. Or make after-tax contributions directly to Fidelity and claim the deduction on your tax return. The after-tax route works, but you lose the payroll tax savings on Social Security and Medicare, which typically run 7.65% of the contribution.
Tax Reporting After the Transfer
What you report depends on which method you used.
For a trustee-to-trustee transfer, there’s almost nothing to do. The IRS doesn’t consider it a distribution or a contribution. Optum won’t send you a 1099-SA for the transferred amount, and you don’t put it on Form 8889. Fidelity reports the incoming funds on Form 5498-SA in box 4, but that form is informational.
For a 60-day rollover, Optum issues a Form 1099-SA showing the distribution, usually with code 1 in box 3. On Form 8889 you report the distribution amount on line 14a and the same amount on line 14b as a rollover contribution. The two entries offset, so no tax is owed if you deposited within 60 days. Do not put the rollover on line 2 of Form 8889, which is only for new contributions.
The 1099-SA from Optum and the 5498-SA from Fidelity both arrive by May 31 of the following year. If you file before they show up, make sure your Form 8889 entries will match what the institutions report. Discrepancies are a common audit trigger for HSA accounts.