Insurance agents and brokers will be among those most impacted by an increase in estate-tax liability if Congress is unable to bridge the ideological divide on extending the Bush-era tax cuts.

Charles Symington, senior vice president of government affairs for the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (IIABA), says allowing estate-tax rates to revert to the Clinton-era levels would be “punitive” to producers and would have “a staggeringly negative effect on our membership.”

If the tax cuts expire at the end of the year, income-tax rates for the highest-earning individuals and families will rise from 36 percent to 39 percent, says Andrew Katzenstein, a partner in the personal-planning department of global law firm Proskauer’s Los Angeles office. But if the estate-tax provisions are allowed to expire, there will be an 80 percent drop in the exemption and a 20 point increase in the tax rate.

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