Pershing LLC of Jersey City, a Bank of New York Co. Inc. subsidiary, has begun offering health savings accounts through two custodians.
Pershing's broker-dealer customers can now open health savings accounts from either the HSA Bank subsidiary of Webster Financial Corp. in Waterbury, Conn., or Millennium Trust Co. LLC of Oak Brook, Ill. Pershing will be the custodian for the investment assets that are tied to the health savings accounts.
Health savings accounts, which complement high-deductible insurance plans by letting workers save for medical expenses tax-free, were first offered in 2004.
By the end of last year 3.6 million of the accounts had been opened, with $5.1 billion of deposits, according to an estimate by Information Strategies Inc.
Information Strategies predicts there will be 8 million HSAs, with $13.6 billion of deposits, by the end of 2007.
