Faculty Profile: Fritz Richter III

Fritz Richter, III, is a Member of Bass Berry & Sims in Nashville.  Fritz has more than 30 years of experience counseling clients on employee benefit plan design and administration, and compliance with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). His clients span a wide-range of industries, including the healthcare, retail and hospitality. Fritz has helped clients navigate hundreds of audits; submitted numerous IRS, Department of Labor and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) filings; and crafted a wide variety of employee benefit plan documents – all focused on helping employers navigate complex government regulation.

With a foundation in the IRS's Employee Plans and Chief Counsel's Offices in Washington, D.C., Fritz has developed a broad employee benefits and executive compensation practice focused on advising clients on the design, implementation and administration of employee benefit plans and compensation arrangements, including:

• 401(k) plans
• Employee stock ownership plans (ESOP)
• 403(b) annuities
• 457 plans
• Profit-sharing plans
• Pension plans (including cash balance plans)
• Nonqualified plans and arrangements (including Section 409A analysis, supplemental executive retirement plans (SERPs), equity-based plans, change in control agreements, rabbi trusts and split-dollar arrangements)
• Governmental plans
• Employee stock purchase plans
• Multiemployer and other collectively bargained plans
• Health and other welfare plans (including Affordable Care Act (ACA), COBRA and HIPAA issues)
• Cafeteria plans (including health and dependent care flexible spending accounts)
• Health savings accounts (HSAs) and health reimbursement accounts (HRAs)

Fritz advises clients on a wide variety of related matters such as ACA issues, ERISA litigation and fiduciary responsibility issues. He also works closely with the firm’s corporate attorneys on employee benefits matters in the context of mergers and acquisitions and on executive compensation arrangements.

Prior to joining the firm, Fritz was with the Employee Plans Division, Office of the Assistant Commissioner (Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations), Internal Revenue Service, and served as Chief Counsel of Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (Employee Benefits and Exempt Organizations) Internal Revenue Service. Additionally, Fritz was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, Judge Advocate General's Corps.