Harold J. Ashner

Washington, DC

Harold J. Ashner advises and represents clients on a wide variety of employee benefits matters, with an emphasis on PBGC issues. He served as Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Regulations at PBGC, where he drafted or supervised virtually all regulations and policies issued by PBGC from 1988 until he left the agency in 2005. These regulations and policies covered virtually all aspects of PBGC’s single-employer practice, including premiums, reportable events, annual employer reporting, penalties, standard and distress terminations, valuation of benefits, and payment of benefits.

Harold left PBGC in January 2005, along with Jim Keightley (1942-2021), PBGC General Counsel, and Bill Beyer (1945-2018), PBGC Deputy General Counsel, to form Keightley & Ashner, a boutique law firm focusing in PBGC issues. In January 2022, shortly after his partner, Jim Keightley, passed away, Harold, along with all of the other lawyers and other professionals at Keightley & Ashner, joined the Wagner Law Group.

Harold’s practice focuses on a broad range of PBGC issues, such as those relating to PBGC’s Early Warning Program, M&A transactions, bankruptcy matters, premiums, reportable events, annual employer reporting, standard, distress, and involuntary terminations, settlements of PBGC liabilities, and valuation and payment of PBGC benefits. He has been engaged by employers of all sizes, including many Fortune 500 companies, as well as major law firms, investment banking firms, and private equity firms to address a wide variety of PBGC and other issues.

Harold has been recognized as a Washington, D.C., Super Lawyer every year since 2008 in the field of Employee Benefits, has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© list in the field of Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law every year since 2016, and has a Peer Review Rating of AV® preeminentTM 5.0 out of 5.0 from Martindale-Hubbell.

He is the author of several publications on PBGC and related matters, and is a frequent speaker on such matters at professional conferences sponsored by the American Bar Association, the American Academy of Actuaries, the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, and other organizations. He is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and has served as a member of its Board of Governors; he also serves in a number of leadership positions in the American Bar Association (as Chair or Co-Chair of three ABA Committees or Subcommittees and as PBGC Liaison for the Employee Benefits Committee of the Section of Taxation).

PBGC Issues

I served as Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Regulations at the PBGC, where I drafted or supervised virtually all regulations and policies issued by the PBGC from 1988 until I left the agency in early 2005, along with PBGC's General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel, to form a PBGC-focused law firm, Keightley & Ashner LLP, and thereafter joined the Wagner Law Group. Since leaving PBGC, I have routinely been retained by major law firms, actuarial consulting firms, investment banking firms, and employers to deal with a wide variety of PBGC-related issues.

Actuarial Issues

Throughout my time at PBGC and thereafter in my law practice, I have dealt with a wide variety of defined benefit plan actuarial issues in areas such as minimum funding, statutory liens, PBGC premiums, PBGC reporting, and calculation of PBGC liabilities in connection with plan terminations.