Koley Jessen Expands Employee Benefits Practice
Koley Jessen is pleased to announce that attorneys Daniel J. Wintz and Adam L. Cockerill have joined the firm’s employment, labor, and benefits practice group and will both practice in the area of employee benefits. Wintz will also practice with Koley Jessen’s estate and business succession planning team.
Prior to joining Koley Jessen, Wintz was a partner in a major Omaha law firm where he led its retirement and employee benefits and estate planning and fiduciary administration groups. Wintz has nearly four decades of legal experience and has served publicly traded and privately owned companies and governmental employers and their executives with retirement and other employee benefit plans including defined benefit, defined contribution and ESOP plans, deferred and equity based compensation.
Cockerill was also a partner in another major Omaha law firm where his practice focused on areas of employee benefits and Affordable Care Act compliance, ERISA, tax, and public employer retirement systems. He has significant experience advising clients on ERISA compliance and employee benefit programs, including retirement and 401(k) plans, deferred compensation, and health and welfare benefits plans.
Additionally, Wintz has extensive experience in estate planning, estate and trust administration, charitable giving, and tax planning. He has helped family-owned and closely-held businesses, farms, and ranches with succession and transition planning issues. He is a Fellow in The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ATEC) and the first and currently only Estate Planning Law Specialist certified in Nebraska by the American Bar Association accredited Estate Planning Law Specialist Board.
“Dan and Adam are both skilled attorneys with a track record of providing their clients with outstanding service and valued legal counsel," said Mike Hupp, President of Koley Jessen. “They bring a wealth of experience and will be a tremendous asset to our reputable, established teams in employee benefits and estate planning and will help expand Koley Jessen’s capabilities in these areas.”
Wintz is a frequent speaker and author on retirement planning, estates and trusts, fiduciary responsibility, and transition/succession planning. He is also an adjunct professor at Creighton University College of Law where he teaches estate planning. He received his bachelor's degree in Tudor-Stuart British Intellectual History from The University of Chicago and his law degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is rated by his peers as AV-Preeminent (Martindale-Hubbell), and was voted for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America (© Woodward/White Inc.) and Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters). In 2011, he received the Community Sower Award from the Nebraska Partnership for Philanthropic Planning. Wintz is admitted to practice in Nebraska and Iowa and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Courts for the District of Nebraska, and the United States Tax Court.
Cockerill received his law degree from Creighton University School of Law, cum laude, and his B.S.B.A. in Accounting and Finance from Creighton University. He is a member of the Nebraska State Bar Association and is admitted to practice in Nebraska and Iowa.