Please stay tuned for important disclosure information at the conclusion of this episode.

Welcome to Investing Insights. I'm your host, Ivanna Hampton. Health savings accounts offer a tax-efficient way to save for medical costs.

Every year, Morningstar analyzes the HSA landscape and rates

top providers. And we'll hear from the Lee researcher later in the show. But first, I'll talk with

Morningstar Inc. editor, Margaret Giles, about what you should know about HSAs and how to maximize

their tax benefits. Margaret has co-written Morningstar's Guide to HSAs, how to maximize their tax benefits.

Margaret has co-written Morningstar's Guide to HSAs, and she's here with me now as I pivot.

Thank you for being here, Margaret.

Happy to be here.

So you have coordinated Morningstar's HSA coverage on Morningstar.com for several years.

This year's guide looks great.

I want to get into what is an HSA and how does it work? Right. So it's important to know the basics before we get into the ratings

down the road, right? So HSAs are tax advantage accounts that let you save for medical costs. And there's

two sides of them. There's the spending account side,

which basically acts like a checking account where you put money in and then you can take money

out to pay for qualified medical expenses. But the real kind of power of HSA's is they have this

other element, which is an investing account. And so you can do either one or both, but you can put money in

and then similar to another kind of investment account, you can put your money in and then

choose from a menu of funds to actually invest your money and have that money grow so that you

can use it down the line. How do you know if you're eligible to have an

HSA? Right. So HSAs are only available if you have a high deductible health care plan.

And then a couple other rules there, you can't be a dependent on someone else's tax return,

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