HealthEquity, Inc. (HQY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the HealthEquity Investor Conference Call. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Richard Putman. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Megan. Hello, everyone. Welcome to HealthEquity's investor conference call. My name is Richard Putnam, Investor Relations for HealthEquity. Joining me today is John Kessler, President and CEO; Dr. Steve Neeleman, Vice Chair and Founder of the company; and James Lucania, Executive Vice President and CFO. Before I turn the call over to John, I have a couple of reminders. First, a press release announcing our CEO succession plan was issued after the market closed this afternoon. You can find a copy on our Investor Relations website, which is ir.healthequity.com. Second, our comments and responses to your questions today reflect management's view as of today, November 12, 2024, and may contain forward-looking statements as defined by the SEC. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from the statements made here today. We caution against placing undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, and we also encourage you to review the discussion of these factors and other risks that may affect our future results or the market price of our stock as detailed in our latest annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent periodic reports filed with the SEC. We assume no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. Now over to John Kessler.

Thank you, Richard, as always, and thanks, everyone, for joining us on a very short notice. We announced just about half an hour ago that I will retire from the role of President and CEO, effective on Monday, January 6, 2025. And on that date, our new CEO, Scott Cutler, will join HealthEquity and its Board. I will remain a director and a special adviser to the company to address transition matters through April 30, 2025. I've got a few remarks on today's announcement, and then Steve, Jim, and I will answer your questions. The biggest of those questions might be why now? And the answer is that HealthEquity is in an incredibly strong and stable position. We're the acknowledged leader in HSA market share and mind share, and we're building on that lead by outperforming market growth organically and by acquiring stranded HSA portfolios very efficiently. We're adding to the size and stability of the HSA fee stream through enhanced rates and growing ancillary CDB volume. I think I said finally, but Richard edited that out. We're introducing novel and I think truly synergistic products like the health payment accounts launched in September and transparency and incentive-driven benefits engagement offerings that we talked about at Investor Day, which are coming shortly. And not to be left out, there's the potential for enabling more products, including hope accounts and HSA modernization through legislation. The leadership team is deep and driving through technology, a transformation of how we sell and serve. We're in a strong financial position as recent rating upgrades suggest, notwithstanding the fact that we've had acquisitions and also the company's inaugural share buyback authorization. And lastly, and I think most importantly, Purple culture and values are alive and well. HealthEquity's strength allows me to meet what is really, I think, a key responsibility of any CEO, which is delivering a smooth transition to an outstanding successor. Our independent directors and Steve and I, with help from outside experts, we've been doing advanced work for this for several years. And the company's current strength really assured that from my perspective, that a comprehensive search would yield multiple exceptional candidates. We kind of had 3 criteria. The first was CEO experience at comparable scale as well as public company senior operating experience. The second was track record of sustained growth in these roles, both from existing products and new launches, sounds familiar. Third, a level of judgment and an approach that exemplified Purple values and the high expectations that we have for all of our senior most executives. So with those criteria in mind, let me tell you a little about our soon-to-be teammate, Scott Cutler. Scott began his career as a lawyer and investment banker, which maybe doesn't speak to judgment, but the good judgment is that he got out of that deal. In 2006, he joined NYSE Euronext as an EVP and a Co-Head of new listings and Cash Execution business lines. Over the course of 9 years, Scott helped to transform this sort of venerable firm into the #1 global exchange platform, launched new value-added products for corporate issuers. In 2015, he joined another kind of marketplace, StubHub as President. Scott, again focused on growth through partnerships, through product expansion, technology transformation. Scott led the Americas vertical for StubHub parent eBay, where he created 2 new billion businesses before joining a very small company at that time, StockX as President and CEO in 2019. And Scott's led this Detroit-based start-up's growth into what I'm told by all the hipsters it is today, which is the global platform for buyers and sellers of the hottest sneakers, streetwear, collectibles, designer handbags, watches, and more. That's not their copy. I wrote that. So if you guys want to use that at StockX, you're going to have to come. As I say, it's probably a hipster paradise. I don't really know. I'm kidding, of course. As with StubHub, the growth of StockX -- this is what I do know. As with StubHub, the growth of Stock X has been driven by a combination of B2B partnerships and B2C experience, enabled by effective investments in technology and data science. Again, I would hope that sounds familiar to you as you've thought about our strategy over the course of time. At HealthEquity, expectations for how leaders accomplish business goals are just as high as the goals themselves. Scott is an exceptional fit, truly exceptional to Purple culture. He has over and over again achieved results through and with high-performance teams and careful observers of HealthEquity will know that over the last several years, we've rebuilt our senior teams, including in technology and commercial leadership for innovation-driven growth versus integration on its own of acquisitions. I'm truly excited as you should be for what Scott and the team can achieve together. As previously announced, we will provide the results of fiscal third quarter on December 9, at which time we will also update full fiscal year 2025 guidance and once again, provide a preview of next year, fiscal 2026. While Scott will still be finishing up at StockX on that date, he will also join us on the call to introduce himself to you. Let me close by thanking Steve and our fellow directors for the opportunities they've given me over the last 15 years. This is the best job I have ever had, and I mean, I have [ scwogz ]. So that's pretty good. I am particularly grateful, and this is true for the Board's process partnership, I should say, during this succession process. Succession, as I think we all know, is notoriously tricky stuff. And I never -- this is me speaking off the cuff here, guys. Never in my work life have I felt so much faith in my own judgment as we work together to deliver a great outcome for HealthEquity's shareholders, teammates, members, clients, and partners. And I think we have done that. As some of you know, I became a grandfather this year. My wife, Laura and I are overjoyed to take an active role in little Audrea's life. She is living like just a few blocks away from us, which is awesome. HQI shares will certainly make up a substantial portion of her new college fund as well as in our own portfolio for a long, long time. And I'm really looking forward to cheering the team's future successes just as much as those that we have reported to you over the years. It's just going to have to be between diaper changes and whisper at NA time. With that, we know you have a number of questions. And so let's go to our operator for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Gregory Peters with Raymond James.

Congratulations, Grampa, on your retirement. I guess inside the announcement, there's nothing said about Steve, what's your role going forward? Is there any severance considerations that we have to start including in our model, things like that? So maybe you could speak to some of those variables.

Steve, why don't you hit the first question, which I think is the more important? I'll hit the second.

Absolutely. Greg, good to hear your voice. Look, these transitions can be tough, but I can tell you that as John, I think, did a good job of describing, the partnership with our Board going through this process was directed to find someone that could truly following John's footsteps and continue long-term growth of this company. And that's what I love. I think most people on this call that have listened to us before know that this is a mission-driven company. And we also have a vision, which is by the year 2030, HSAs will be as widespread and popular as retirement accounts. And so Greg, it's not 2030 yet, and HSAs are not as widespread and popular as retirement accounts. So I'm absolutely committed to this company. We're thrilled that Scott has the background between not only B2B businesses, but B2B2C because we need to continue to empower these consumers that we have out there. And so I've been able to spend through this process several hours with Scott as have the rest of the Board. And as hard as it is to see John go, I think we've got a great replacement. So I will continue to partner with Scott, and I'll be on the Board going forward and stay on the executive team and do everything I can to continue to help us carry out our mission and vision. And that's not -- I didn't script that. That's just from my heart man. I hope you know that.

And Greg, with regard to -- it's always got to be a multipart question. With regard to the question about severance, no, this is a genuine retirement. I'll be on the payroll during the special adviser period through April and obviously, on the Board during that period. But there's nothing you guys need to worry about there.

Well, you've done a great job. The Board and the management team have done a great job of creating value, shareholder value from your time of your IPO to today. It's been a remarkable journey. So congratulations. I hope Scott and the team can pick up where you left off and as an analyst following your company, lead to further success in the future. So good luck to everyone.

The next question comes from George Hill with Deutsche Bank.

John, I'm trying to not get cherry on this one. I'll kick it off with a personal note saying, I'm glad we have you around a little bit longer, and it's always been fun to have you on the calls and the HealthEquity call has always been different from most other earnings calls that I get to participate in, and I mean that is a good thing and a compliment. I look forward and if Scott is listening to talking about our favorite Nike Dunks, and I actually placed an order on StockX today. So I'm very familiar with what StockX is. If I have a question, I'd be interested in what you and the Board found are the translatable skills, I guess, that Scott has acquired from his time at StockX and StubHub that apply to HealthEquity. And I ask that because the history of this space is people who come into health care technology from outside of health care have historically not had great success. So it's interesting to see this transition with an outsider coming into health care. I'm interested to hear what you guys saw so attractive about Scott.

Yes. You really make a great point and one we talked about quite a bit at the beginning of the search. You'll note that it's funny to have conversations that were a little while ago kind of come back. You'll note that when I listed out what our criteria were, I did not list extensive industry experience. And that was very deliberate. And it was really a reflection of our view that that is very much the company's long suit, and we've, I think, over time, continued to build that suit. Do you build a suit? I don't know how that works. But rather, what we really felt like Scott brought to the table was first, and I think foremost, and I'll just generically say all of these points are, they really play to the strengths of the company's strategy that you're now familiar with, right? First, and I think foremost, driving growth in both existing and new products through a mix of B2B partnerships, technology-driven service to consumers, and then also within the company's operations, StockX, like HealthEquity has quite a -- there's sort of this operational back end that you don't see, but that's out there, but also driving through technology improvements there. So when you think about that in the context of our strategy and what we talked about at Investor Day, it's really a nice fit because it's not so much about like, oh, this is a blank page, and we're asking you to come in with a strategy. It's there's a pretty good strategy here. It's about executing it and improving it. And the points I made a moment ago speak to execution. I think the area where I believe anyway that Scott will also improve our strategy is very specifically in terms of the success of our efforts aimed at the consumer themselves, the consumer, what we would call in our world consumer education. In all of these kind of marketplace businesses, StubHub, StockX, et cetera, you're having to create a community and bring that community along and really understand it and do so in a way that you don't have the option to do it inefficiently. The community is just too big. And so I think there's going to be a really nice sort of buy between Scott's expertise there and what we're trying to do and we started to do with Engage 360 and all of that around the consumer, which ultimately our partners and clients really value. So those are the things. If I had to, again, just generically say it, I'd say we brought someone in with strengths around technology-driven results that are very complementary to the strategy we've outlined.

The next question comes from Mark Marcon with Baird.

Congratulations. First of all, I hope that all is well with you and your wife and health and everything like that. And that's wonderful to hear. Just this is a question that I think a lot of people are asking is just you guys have been so careful and deliberate about everything. This kind of comes as a little bit of a surprise. I'm wondering why it wasn't announced that, hey, you were considering this at some point in the future. And then the other question is, I mean, given all of the strengths and the high level of admiration that all the shareholders have for you, why you aren't staying on the Board for a little bit longer? I can understand how the new CEO may potentially find that to be uncomfortable. But at the same time, given all of your strengths, your expertise, and knowledge that you can contribute, why not stay as a member of the Board for longer?

Yes. I'm going to give you one might say a very predictably Kessler-like answer. When you recruit a great candidate, and I think for all the reasons that we talked about a moment ago that made this the right time to do this. They're the same reasons that we were able to attract a great list of potentials and ultimately land on Scott as the best fit. The candidate doesn't need training wheels. And that's the way I look at it. And there's nothing more than that. So I think it's a reflection of my confidence and ultimately the Board's confidence broadly in the candidate we've chosen as well as the team that we have. The training wheels aren't needed. He's going to do great.

And then there wasn't an explicit reiteration of guidance. From your perspective, is everything kind of the same or consistent in the business? Any sort of changes at all? I think I know the answer to that would be no, but just to get it on the record.

Jim, do you want to hit this one?

Yes, yes. Thanks for that question. Look, I mean, I think you can appreciate that we just closed the quarter on 10/31. So this is a difficult quiet period of time for us to be talking about any results. So maybe not the answer that you're looking for, but I'm just going to have to ask you to wait until we report Q3, which we'll update the guidance for the rest of this year as well as give you our first outlook into next year. So just appreciate your sensitivity to the point in the calendar where we are right now.

The next question comes from Stephanie Davis with Barclays.

Congratulations. Thank you so much. I also think you should take a second career in writing the marketing materials for StockX. That was pretty good. I go buy some kicks on that.

Maybe it's like a freelance-type deal. I don't think I'll ever have a full-time job at freelance I might do.

Well, besides that new side hustle, I do have some questions. Scott's experience is mostly in marketplace platforms. And when I think about HealthEquity Dark, you've taken some steps to adding more buying adjacent solutions in the app, like I believe we've talked about navigation when you're at your Analyst Day. Is the read-through that we could see some future monetization of the app and then Scott is the guy to do it? Or am I reading too much into this?

Steve, why don't you start on this one? You've spent a lot of time with Scott. And obviously, we've talked about all kinds of stuff, but I think you have the best sense of kind of the straight and narrow over on.

Thanks, John, and thank you, Stephanie. Our mission statement, we love our mission statement, right? We save and improve lives by empowering healthcare consumers. And how do we empower healthcare consumers? And Stephanie, I think it's a lot of the things that you kind of referenced a little bit, right? Number one, we've been empowering them for now over 22 years this month, I guess, by helping them understand the benefits of these tax-advantaged accounts starting to accumulate money. I mean, the last time we reported, we're over 16 million American families that are benefiting from this and close to $30 billion. And we're doing a good job. It's never over. But there are other ways we can empower healthcare consumers, and you're starting to see this rollout, right? The health payment accounts, we're seeing a lot of interest in those because there are too many American families. In fact, it's about 54% of American families right now that can't afford a $500 emergency medical expense, which is terribly frightening. So how do you help them? Well, they got to use this benefit. They got to, if they can, get a few bucks in that account, maybe their employers want to fund it, maybe you can tie funding that account to maybe doing more preventive care wellness or whatever. And so that's just kind of B2B2C access that we need to just continue to make real. And then it's like how else can you empower health care consumers, right? And it's, well, not only should we be helping them get their preventative care, but when it comes time to go spend, maybe we can help them get kind of a better deal or a better value defined by quality, defined by cost and things like that. And when you look deeply at Scott's background, you'll see that, that's what he's been doing, right? He's been helping consumers and the whole value chain, even most recently at StockX get more value. And I think that's what we need to keep doubling down on is how can we -- and that's our version of value-based care, right? Everyone else talks about their own versions, but our version of value-based care is helping an individual healthcare consumer be able to spend their money, be able to save their money, and invest their money more effectively. And we've always taken the lead on that in the market. And so when we looked around and you can see in the press release and the materials we prepared that we were very thoughtful about this. The Board is very thoughtful and thrilled to have John involved in this evaluation process because we needed to find somebody that could step right in and start to help us empower these healthcare consumers in the way that they need to be empowered long-term to help not only take care of their immediate health care spending but their long-term health care financial security. And that's what's deep in our DNA. And I think you're going to find that as we start to partner with Scott. He's going to -- we believe that in my conversations with him, I think he believes in our strategy. Of course, he'll put his kind of own stamp on the strategy, but we're going to keep rolling forward, and I think you're going to see just onward and upward from HealthEquity.

If I wanted to kind of pull on that thread a little bit and then maybe also try to sneak in my John's follow-up. So I wrote a little bit there. When you think about going into maybe more of this marketplace model, is it more internal build-out? Or is there some partnership opportunities? And John, I feel like every time I'm wrapping up at a place, I always realize there's something left in my to-do list. Is there anything on your to-do list that you're passing over to Scott and saying here's now?

No. Stephanie, I think that there's no question there are opportunities out there. And we just started to explore it. I mean we -- with the acquisitions we've done, we've had so much integration work over the years, not just the Wage acquisition, which is now 5 years into that, but the other acquisitions we've done. And so I think now we have the platform. And even in the early days of things like health payment accounts, as we've gone out to the market, we think there's interest. And we know that consumers trust us. We have high Net Promoter Scores. Clients trust us. And so if we can be very thoughtful, we've had some success. We've offered different products where we are partnering to use your words, but we've also for example, our HealthEquity Advisor solution that we've now been operating for over a decade, that's our product. We own it. And so I think there are opportunities for both build and buy and partner, and we just need to explore it. But if we feel like there's a solution out there in the market that can help drive more value for healthcare consumers and to use our kind of buzzword to empower them in the different ways we talked about, then we will look at different options to do that. But it's got to be in line with our strategy and the mission of our company.

Yes. And to answer the part of your question, Stephanie, that was directed to me, the short answer is yes. In fact, that list is about 12 items long, and it really reflects the initiatives underway across the sort of 3 pillars of our current strategy. So let me just kind of talk about that a little bit. Delivering remarkable experience, which is a little bit different than service is really about ultimately about taking the paper, plastic out of what we do and creating an environment where both our people on the front lines are extremely effective, more effective than they are today, even, but also that our customers get answers that they need without our people on the front lines. And we've talked about some of the ways that we're using AI and the like in several of those areas. And so as you've seen from a results perspective, we're just at the beginning of that. And I'm sure that there will be, as there have been to date, some like 2 steps forward, half a step back, whatever. But the momentum is there, but that job is nowhere near done. And that is reflected in our view about where we can get to, whether you think, like think about it in terms of unit cost while maintaining very high levels of -- and I mean, world-class is one of those phrases that gets overused, but nonetheless, from a benchmark perspective, world-class levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. So that's kind of one area. The second area of to-dos is around deepening our partnerships. And there, you have a combination. What's that really about if you kind of translate it into the things you model? It's ultimately about driving the value that we receive per unit of sales and marketing expense. And there are a lot of different ways we do that, right? But the most important way from our perspective is that we are out there with from an industry perspective, a truly unique set of partners that nobody else can come close to and that, that partnership group grows every quarter and has become incredibly effective for us. From a technology perspective, we have talked about quite a bit and have begun the process of really -- the way I think about it is digitizing the funnel in combination with our partners. So that's work that is underway, but that is very much from my perspective, in the to-do world. Also sort of in this category, though, on the other end, that's about the effectiveness of acquisition from a unit perspective. There are also things like enhanced rates where the enhanced rates migration just increases the value of the product, both because it increases fees, but also it increases the stability of fees. And I think that's something we can all agree is good. And then the third area where I think is the one that Steve was kind of alluding to in his comment is about driving results that matter for members. And the way I look at that is there's doing that better within existing products, and we talked a few minutes ago about the fact that I think to use a phrase of the moment, there will be a lot of vibe between Scott and our consumer education team in terms of as we've started modernizing the stack and all that. But it's also about bringing the rest of that ecosystem that in many instances, our clients and partners already have, bringing a lot of point solutions, not together in the sense of like we're some magic portal, but together in the sense of using all of the data at our clients' disposal to drive the actions that are really valuable for members as well as for our clients and partners. And I think you've seen a little bit of that with -- you're going to see a little bit of that shortly with transparency. I mean this has been around a long time as an idea. And it's not that people don't like it. It's about, from our perspective, using all the information you have to know what's relevant to an individual at an individual point. And then I think you're particularly going to see that as we get into our incentive-based solutions and what we call IEP or our incentive platform where we're talking about really instead of kind of throwing a bunch of stuff at and money really at members and seeing what sticks, which is what our clients are kind of forced to do today, why not use the data that they have and we have about those members to tailor the most effective offers that will really drive results. And so I guess that's a way of saying the to-do list is actually rather long. And I think I kind of started at the beginning of this answer with things that are, I think, pretty -- I'm going to say, without disrespecting those who are doing the work, cut and dry, and then into areas where we're going to learn from what the market has to show us and I think -- and has to tell us as we roll things out. And as I've said, I think Scott will take up that mantle pretty well and probably do his own job of, I think, in particular, evaluating what's working, what's not, make changes. I think he'll also -- one of the things I've noticed about Scott, actually, I noticed it, it was a comment made by an individual who is both an acquaintance of mine and a former supervisor of his at NYSE, you can guess who it might be, but is that there's no room too big for this guy. And his comment was a little bit like, so at NYSE, it was about new issuance first. And like you know what new issuance is about, you know what those pitches are about. And then moves over to something like StubHub where you're doing deals with entertainment providers and whatnot, and that's like a whole another world of big room. And then at StockX, it's about the world's leading brands. And I think that will be a really interesting combination with the rest of HealthEquity in the sense that one of the things about us, as you know, is we're kind of we're kind of quiet. We're a little bit provincial, someone might say. And I think that having that will be a real asset to the company and will, I suspect -- I don't know that it will take us in different directions, but I suspect it will accelerate some of the directions, not because it's Rolodex, but more just because of the high level of comfort in the context of trying to create valuable partnerships, something we've always tried to do, but I think that Scott will both help and will raise expectations of others in the organization.

The next question comes from David Larsen with BTIG.

John, congrats on a fantastic career. You've delivered a lot of value to your clients and shareholders, and you did a great job. So congratulations. Can you please talk a little bit about what your expectations are from Washington? There's the potential for additional sort of, I guess, coverage might be a way to describe it for HSAs. Just any thoughts from Washington?

It's funny. This is a question we should have prepped for and didn't. Steve, do you want to hit it?

Yes. Thanks, David. Thanks for joining the call. Look, there's no question that with the change coming in D.C. there's going to be some focus on this. I know that the -- I guess, the administration elect is probably the proper way to say it. When it comes to health care, and they speak about their concepts that HSAs are one of their top concepts, HSA expansion. Now that said, I mean, it was the same way a couple of election cycles ago. And so we are hopeful that as this new administration starts to get their legs under and start thinking about what's out there they will turn back to something that I think they believe has served a lot of Americans quite well, right? I mean you know our numbers, David, and yet we're a significant percentage, but not a majority of the market. So there's a lot of HSAs out there. There are a lot of people that are investing and saving money. And I need to remind anyone on this call, it's the best way to save and invest money is an HSA. The money goes in tax-free and a gross tax rate and spend a tax rate in health care, and we all need more money in that type of vehicle. And so we remain quite hopeful that there will be some a lot of talk on expansion. We are also quite happy with the introduction of the HOPE Act back on August '23, where we have now a growing list of bipartisan congressional leaders, I think most of which, not all, but most of which will be back it looks like in January when the new Congress is seated. That's HR9394. And they've put their name in supporting that bill because they believe it can help more Americans. And so I think there are a few different pathways to expand the ability for Americans to have what I would refer to as a personally owned portable investable account, right? We do a lot of HSAs over $9 million. We do a lot of FSAs and HRAs and other types of accounts, and those are a great part of our business, too. But there is this kind of special attribute to the accounts that actually go with you to your next job that go with you into retirement that aren't using it or lose it, that you can invest your own money that your employer can put money in and you can too. And that's why you'll see that HSAs, I mean it's not -- I look very far to know what an important driver of our business it is. And it's not just the financial part of our business. It's the cultural and mission-driven part to help Americans prepare for that. And so David, look, who knows with a crystal ball, but I do think that we're going to see an increased effort to expand these because right now, about 20% to 25% of Americans can have an HSA, right, if you count Medicare and Medicaid and TRICARE and health services and all those other plans and then you just look at what's offered in the market. I mean there's what, approaching 40 million total accounts, some of those probably duplicates and yet there are over 100 million American households. And so we see an opportunity to expand, and we're going to continue to do everything we can to support these initiatives. And it ultimately starts and ends with the legislatures to get it done, but it also matters what people -- the experiences are having with these accounts. And that's where I think we can keep our held up high and talk about the fact that so many people have benefited from this. I mean the median household income in this country is pretty damn close to the median household income within a few thousand dollars of our average account holder. These are great accounts for regular folks, which is probably what this election, a lot of the things that it hinged on was how do you help regular people, and that's what we do well. So we're going to humble and keep our heads down and see where we can get it go. John, I don't know if you have anything else you'd add?

Yes. I'd just say 2 things that Steve was perhaps too modest to mention. The one is the strategy or let me say, the tactic that we have always operated under with regard to our legislative efforts and for that matter, any other public policy activities. Kind of roughly speaking is if we wouldn't be comfortable with you reading about it in the post, then we're not going to do it. And so one of the things that's meant is that Steve has worked his absolute but off. I think he's actually thinner because -- or rather by making sure that everything we do is it's not just bipartisan, right? It's that the other party can look at it and be like, okay, I understand why you did that. if that makes any sense. And so the first point is, I think that strategy pays dividends in an environment where nobody knew what was going to happen. And we now know what's occurred. We don't really know exactly what the cross currents are going to be within the Congress. So I think that's extremely useful and helpful. But the way in which it becomes helpful, and this is the second point I want to make is, and now this is just John, the policy, onetime policy walkway back when in my career. We're going to get bites at the apple here. One of the challenges that we and others have had, but certainly we've had in pushing opportunities to improve access to HSAs and broadly speaking, access to personal portable health accounts and healthcare is how little legislation has actually been done in recent years. And if you look at the calendar, you've got 4 or 5 different things that are going to get done. Some of them very directly related to health care. Something is going to get done with regard to the expiration of the marketplace subsidies. And that's a vehicle where this item can be discussed or you look at broader taxation, something is going to get done with the expiring 2017 tax cuts. And there are a couple of others where we're very well positioned, I think, not just from an idea's perspective, but from the perspective of reaching out to members who are going to be part of those discussions and really educating, I think, and again, in a thoughtful way that we could be proud of about the importance of these products and what can be done. So I think that to the extent one can look at the -- certainly, I would assume to some extent that the recent performance of the stock is a reflection of some optimism on this topic. I think the source of that optimism isn't like X1 or Y1, it really should be that because we're in the situation we're in, there is going to be activity. And when there's activity, you can get stuff done. When Congress is just not passing anything except continuing resolutions, you really can't get a lot done. So I think that's a reason for enthusiasm that Steve is going to be successful at ultimately achieving a level of HSA expansion over the course of the next few years here.

Just one quick follow-up. Steve, you're going to remain actively involved with the operations of the business going forward, like you've always been for years. Is that right?

Yes. As long as they'll keep me. I mean I'm -- like I know I got all this gray hair, but I'm actually prematurely gray, believe it or not, David. And plus I want to go skiing with you at Snowbird next year. But the reality is that my wife and I, we're empty nesters now, but on it, we love HealthEquity and she used to travel with me a little more now, which is pretty cool. And so I love this company. And I was being an interview for someone else earlier today and more of an internal thing for our teammates. And I didn't go to business school and do all that stuff. I just read about a bunch of business books and my 2 favorite books were Built to Last by Collins and Good to Great. And I just want to do everything I can to continue to build kind of a built-to-last type company or at least help us go from a good company to a great company. And so I got nowhere else to go, man, unless -- maybe I'll ski a little bit more with you when you're in town. That's it.

Our next question comes from Stanislav Berenshteyn with Wells Fargo.

Well, first, I want to echo the comments, congratulating John on your retirement. It's definitely a bittersweet announcement. I guess maybe the first question, why was the decision to announce today versus wait a few weeks until earnings? Was it just the stock hit $100 and you decided this is a good time?

Well, I would have preferred to do it last Tuesday, but I think there was some other thing going on last Tuesday. The answer is because we were ready. We wanted to give now that folks will Google it, Scott announced his departure from StockX last Friday. We wanted to be able to tell you not only that I was retiring, but at the same time, to be able to convey exactly what was going to happen. And this was the time that was sort of the point where Scott had begun his transition, so we could announce it, and we were ready. So that's really the reason. I think if we had -- well -- and then I mean, a very -- I'm sure there's several lawyers listening to this call who are saying, "Oh, and John, say this," but it's true is until you really have an agreement with your successor and so forth, nothing is that certain. But once we had, we felt like we should move forward as quickly as we could, and we did.

And to the extent that you can comment on this, how long was this process? Can you just take us through, start to finish?

Yes, sure. I'm happy to. Well, let me back up and say, as I said in the -- first, as I said in the opening remarks, I mean, at this point, it's not like I'm going to have to deal with comp committee anymore. But this -- I say that as a joke, of course. But this Board, if you all had any idea how thoughtful and careful and upright this Board is, I really think you would be very, very proud. We have had a routine process of talking seriously about both emergency succession as well as planned succession at the CEO level for a number of years now. That number is a crook number. It's a big one, right? And having gotten into the routine of that, we've also in addition to planning for the unanticipated succession, we kind of understood what we wanted to do. And so very early in the year, as I told the Board that I was thinking about this, the first thing we did is that we wanted to get a sense of kind of what the market might look like, right? What kind of candidates there might be externally? And we also talked about the current state of development of our leadership team and the like from an internal perspective. But that was extremely valuable kind of dipping the whatever or into the stream or ladle into the soup, I don't know what the right metaphor is. without really having a formal search process, that gave us a view as to how we should think about the candidate universe for HealthEquity. What might be the things we want to trade off and what don't we want to trade off? And what that really led -- and it was without obviously talking to any of them about it being a CEO search. It was talking to real people, right? We just talked about it in a different way. And that gave us -- when we then sat down to talk about criteria, that gave us a real sense of what those criteria might be. And so at some point, in the summer, I guess, we kind of put it into high gear and maybe early in the summer, maybe it's May, I don't know, but put it into high gear. And we expected that we would, and we, in fact, did get a group of -- I mean, I was -- look, I don't know. I was just pretty humbled with the level of interest. And one of the things that was really important to us about that interest, which is not easy, was we did not want anyone who was kind of very far removed from being in the CEO chair either right now or very, very recently because things I think particularly when you look at what's going on from a technology perspective, things have changed quite a bit over the last year or 2. Any CEO that, in my view, is telling you that AI and some of the other things like it that are happening haven't changed their job, I think they are doing the job. Anyone that tells you that from a talent management perspective, the pandemic hasn't changed how we manage, motivate, lead, develop talent, how we sell, how we service, even if their people are coming into the office, they're doing their job. So recency was really important. I think really the kind of fattest part of the process was sort of over towards the late summer into September. And then it was about we had a narrow list of candidates, and we had to work quickly because once someone decides they might look at something, they might look at something else. And so I think at that point, really after Labor Day, in particular, really started to narrow our list down and then do a lot of diligence on a couple of candidates so that we could ultimately feel really comfortable. There were candidates who ultimately might have been great candidates, but just given where they were, it was more difficult for us to do the kind of diligence that we like to do on any of our leadership positions, but certainly on this one. And so that's how we approached it. And I think then the last piece that one that an earlier question alluded to was just spending time, just individuals spending time with the candidate so that we could make a thoughtful assessment of cultural fit. And by that, what I really mean is the level of judgment and accountability that an individual takes as a leader. And that's a lot of what the Board did over the course of particularly when I think about like September and into October. And through all of this, the way I looked at it was that while I had expressed a desire to retire, I had said with this next breath that I love this place, and the least I can do is be here to run through the tape as long as it would take. And so I looked at it like while I was very much involved in the process and appreciate the Board's trust and allowing me to be so, I think that's somewhat unusual for an outgoing CEO. I was always understood that maybe it won't happen. And like that would have been fine at some level. But we're fortunate. We've gotten to a place where we have a great outcome and if Lord Will and the Creek don't rise over the next month or so, there will be. And so that's maybe a longer answer than you either asked for or expected, but that's a good summary without using the platitudes of exhaustive search and all those kind of things that you usually hear. And I'll just close where I opened, which is, well, I'm going to use -- Steve is better at the metaphors than I am, but I'm going to try one. I kind of have come to the view watching boards over all these years that the Board is like the keel ballast and a shift, the heavy thing at the bottom, by which I don't mean that it's crusty and covered with barnacles. It's that it kind of keeps the ship -- I mean what that thing does is it keeps the ship pointed forward and upright like no matter where the wind blows. I think during this process, I just can't say enough about the thoughtful, diligent, and methodical way that our Board sought to do exactly what I think it was Mark that said a few minutes ago was, which was to create an environment where we can not only maintain the value that's been created, but we can continue to grow at -- and I mean, grow value at the same or better pace. And so that's kind of my summary of the process.

Just a quick one for Steve as a follow-up on the HOPE Act. Would love to just get your thinking on the potential probabilities in terms of timing, likelihood of passing. I know it's still early. It's always kind of open-ended, but would love to get your thoughts on that.

Sure, Stan. And obviously, things are still unsettled. But there is the big TCJA that needs to be dealt with. If not, then it will expire, obviously, into 2025. And so I think that's a good opportunity. John mentioned there are a few different pathways forward. There's the expiration of the advanced premium subsidies that go into to help people on exchanges and things like that. Those are going to expire. There's other things that have to be done. And so I do think the administration elect has talked about trying to do something early on some of these things. But who knows? I just know this has been a long journey. And I do believe that if you talk to people in the oncoming administration and you ask them, so what are these concepts that you're thinking about when it comes to health care? And I think HSAs be in the top 5. I really do. I mean most people have been around long enough because they just -- they see the benefit. And the nice thing is evidenced in the bipartisan sponsorship or the HOPE Act that it's not just limited to the administration elect. I mean there's support out there for HSAs. I mean they've been around now since 2004. They went through Obamacare and they came through. I mean that's when you really -- if you were to have the data, we didn't share our data prior to 2014 really in the public. But I can tell you that following Obamacare is when HSA started to really accelerate when the Affordable Care Act was passed. And so we do think that this is a good opportunity. But I think those would be just some general dates to keep an eye on is when do they need to start thinking about the TCJA, when do they need to start thinking about how to deal with the subsidies that are going into exchanges because these are pretty significant things that if they don't deal with them in a different way, then there's going to be some explaining to do to people that are struggling to pay their health care bills, right? And those are a lot of the folks that voted a week ago.

I would just add, guys, I got this is such a -- relative to some of the other things that they have to deal with, this is a short put. And I obviously have to propose the rest of the conversation. I'm not accountable for this prediction. But I'd like to say I'm not a betting person and I'm not. But in this regard, I am because I'm a long holder of this company's stock. My view is that the chances that something will get done in this incoming Congress are higher than the chances of anything being done on this topic since the HSAs were passed. It's just it's relative to other things, it's not hard. It's doable. And we talk about the work we do, but people who are smart, thoughtful, and independent and are out there on public policy have done a ton of work on this. So it's not something that's kind of being invented on the fly. And so I really do think the chances of Steve and the team being part of getting something special done in this Congress are very, very good.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to John Kessler for any closing remarks.

Yes. I don't really like corporate eulogies and stuff. So I just wanted to briefly say thank you to everyone. You guys will have one more crack at me in December. I'm hopeful to see some of you in person immediately after that, doing NDR-type work and then kind of start to rev it up. I would expect -- this is me writing a check that Scott will have to cash, but that you'll get a crack at him at an unnamed healthcare-focused investor event in January. One might argue that actually explains a lot of the timing of this that I didn't want to go to another year of. That was already texted to me by one of you, well done. So in any event, I'll hold the model and speech for them, but just to say thanks for everything, and also thanks for joining us on short notice.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.