An approach to a head gimbal assembly (HGA), such as for a hard disk drive, includes a swage plate assembly coupling a suspension to one side of an actuator arm, where the swage plate assembly includes a baseplate having a through-hole and a swage boss insert comprising a flange and a swage boss extending from the flange through the baseplate through-hole. The HGA is configured such that the baseplate is positioned between the flange and the actuator arm, such that a distal surface of the flange is the surface closest to a corresponding recording medium, whereby the thickness of the suspension is effectively recessed within the material dimensional buildup of the other parts and a greater clearance is provided between the suspension and the recording medium.