80% Chance Of Estate Tax Repeal Under Trump, GOP Congress

By Susan Rupe InsuranceNewsNet

The estate tax has an 80 percent probability of being repealed under a President Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress. That's according to Ken Kies, managing director of The Federal Policy Group, who spoke during a post-Election Day webinar sponsored by The Association for Advanced Life Underwriting

Kies provided some speculation on the estate tax as part of his glimpse into what the first eight months of the Trump presidency could look like.

“Our best opportunity to stop this is to convince the Republican leadership that having Trump sign on to an estate tax repeal – something that would benefit his family – would be a disaster from a public relations standpoint,” he said.

Kies predicted that Trump’s top priority would be what he called “one big budget deal” that would encompass repeal of the Affordable Care Act, an infrastructure program and tax reform. “And we think that will be done by the August recess,” he said.

Also in the first half of 2017, Kies predicted, the Trump administration will withdraw the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, as well as a number of other DOL rules, including overtime regulations.

An 8-Month Window

Eight months - that’s how long of a window the newly-elected president Donald Trump has to launch whatever big initiatives he wants to see passed by Congress.

The first eight months of a Trump presidency are crucial because once members of Congress return from their August recess, their attention will turn toward their 2018 re-election efforts, Kies said.

But tax reform and ACA repeal won’t be the only issues that Trump will need to address early on, Kies said. Making key appointments such as chief of staff, will be an immediate priority for the new president, as will appointing Cabinet positions and getting those appointees confirmed.

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected].