Your HSA debit card and online distribution requests can only draw from your cash balance — not from money you have invested. If your cash balance runs low, a card purchase or distribution request can be declined even if you have more money sitting in investments.

Most plans also require you to maintain a minimum cash balance at all times. If your balance ever dips below that required minimum, funds are automatically moved back from your investments to restore it — but that transfer isn't instant, so it's often better to plan ahead.

You may want to increase your cash balance if you:

• Have an upcoming medical expense and want the funds readily available instead of waiting for an investment sale to settle

• Want to raise your personal cash threshold above the plan minimum

• Prefer to keep more of your HSA liquid rather than invested

If you have money invested that you would like to move to your cash account, there are two ways to accomplish this:

• Option 1: Increase your Investment Threshold (use if you want to permanently maintain more money in cash)
  1. After logging in to your account, click on Investment Summary under Accounts
  2. Click "Edit" next to Investment Auto-Transfer
  3. Increase the threshold to match what you would like to maintain in your cash account (this must meet or exceed the minimum cash threshold required by your plan)
  4. Click "Submit"

• Option 2: Initiate a One-time Trade (use if you want to increase your cash balance temporarily)
  1. After logging in to your account, select Manage Investments under Accounts
  2. In the One-time Trades section, click "Sell Investments"

3. Indicate whether you want to disable automatic investment transfers, temporarily suspend them, or change your threshold.

4. Enter your transfer details and submit the transfer request.