Overview

Jeff Krueger is a partner of the firm practicing in the Employee Benefits practice group. Jeff designs, drafts, and advises clients about the administration of tax-qualified retirement plans (including defined benefits, cash balance plans, profit sharing, 401(k) and 401(m), money purchase pension plans, and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)), nonqualified deferred compensation plans and cafeteria and welfare plans. Jeff also provides advice regarding tax and fiduciary issues associated with the provision of employee benefits.

Problem-solver with IRS and DOL Regulatory Matters

Jeff routinely advises clients on how to address and resolve compliance issues and participant claims associated with the provision of employee benefits. In the qualified retirement plan area, Jeff assists clients in correcting retirement plan defects under the Internal Revenue Service’s Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System and various Department of Labor (DOL) voluntary correction procedures. Jeff has also advised clients about how to respond to IRS and DOL audits of their employee benefit plans. In the nonqualified deferred compensation area, Jeff also counsels clients about the IRS’s correction procedures for Internal Revenue Code (Code) Section 409A violations.

Experienced Benefits Lawyer with Sound Judgment for M&A Transactions and Other Dispute Resolution

Jeff has significant experience advising clients about how to handle employee benefits matters raised by various types of business transactions such as mergers and acquisitions (including transactions involving ESOP-owned companies). He has considerable experience advising employers about participation in multiemployer pension plans and resolution of withdrawal liability disputes with multiemployer pension plans. Jeff partners with litigators to assist clients in successfully resolving arbitration and litigation (including class action litigation) under ERISA.

Unique Insights Gained from Experience Serving Various Industries

Jeff represents clients in a wide range of industries, including health care, energy, engineering and architectural services, manufacturing, childcare, retail, forest and food products, and financial services.

Jeff was a legal intern for the Honorable Theodore F. McMillian, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Education

Washington University School of Law, LL.M., Taxation, 1999

Washington University School of Law, J.D., 1996; Order of the Coif

Washington University, St. Louis, A.B., History, 1993, with honors; Phi Beta Kappa

Admissions

Oregon

Utah

Illinois

Missouri

Experience

  • Represent the Timber Operators Council Retirement Plan (TOCRP) in connection with the termination of the TOCRP and the related pension risk transfer transaction by which the TOCRP settled approximately $245 million of its pension plan obligations for approximately 3,000 retirees, beneficiaries, and deferred participants.
  • Assists clients in mergers and spin-offs of qualified retirement plans, including profit sharing, 401(k) and 401(m), and pension plans.
  • Advises sponsors about maintenance of multiple employer-defined benefit pension and profit-sharing plans.
  • Advises employers with publicly and privately held equity securities about the maintenance of ESOPs and ESOP-related transactions.
  • Assisted employers with amendments and restatements of nonqualified deferred compensation plans to be either exempt from or compliant with Code Section 409A, including:
    • Updates of SERPs that provide benefits in excess of Code Section 401(a)(17) limits that apply to qualified pension plans
    • Restatements of elective deferral, account balance-based plans
    • Amendments to executive employment agreements
    • Updates to and terminations of phantom stock and stock appreciation right plans
    • Restatements of deferred compensation arrangements for tax-exempt employers to qualify for exemptions from Code Section 409A requirements

Recognition

  • Selected as one of “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” (Oregon) by Chambers USA (Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation), 2020–present
  • Included in The Best Lawyers in America® (Employment Benefits (ERISA) Law), 2009–2021, 2024-present

Affiliations

Professional

  • Western Pension and Benefits Conference, Member

Industries

Practice Areas

  • “He understands our business, understands our values, and is a great advocate.”

    “Jeff is one of the most knowledgeable and responsive attorneys we work with.”

    Chambers USA
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