What You Need to Know about Surrogacy Costs

Según nos indican en el artículo de Sensible Surrogacy :

Surrogacy costs are typically paid throughout the course of the 12-month long process. For surrogacy programs overseas, payments will be divided into relatively equal, manageable phases. By managing the pace of the program, future parents can also manage when payments come due. Below is a detailed explanation of the typical payment schedule for a surrogacy procedure. (To see the actual surrogacy costs, you can download the price brochures for each procedure above.) Every program will be slightly different, but all programs will include each of these fees – either separate or bundled together. All Intended parents should be familiar with these payments, when they are due, and how much they add the total surrogacy costs.

 

Professional Consultation:

Any reputable agent should consult with future parents at no charge until they are confident to move forward. It’s the agent’s first task to help you decide if surrogacy is the best solution for you — and in some cases it may not be. If an agent attempts to sell you a program without first reviewing your situation in depth and reviewing all opportunities and inherent risks, that should be an immediate red flag. Your representative is not a salesman – and his primary role is to help you reduce your total surrogacy costs while improving your chance of success. Make sure your agent represents you and is not paid by or is financially linked to the clinic. This may create conflicts in your agent’s priorities.

 

Agency Fee:

When you decide to start the procedure and want to make specific plans for your procedure, the Agency Fee is due. The agency fee is paid only once, and is generally the only payment made directly to the Agent. Agency Fee covers his service to you from the moment you contact him to when you arrive home with your new baby. Typical services provided by your Agency Fee: liaising with the surrogate, the clinic, the egg door agency, and other service providers. The Agency Fee should also trigger special negotiated prices from the clinic or other service providers.

 

Administration Fees for the Donor and Surrogate:

This fee is typically paid when the parents are ready to choose an egg donor or surrogate. The payment covers the cost of evaluating and initially preparing your surrogate. Although the surrogate’s agency typically has several potential candidates, they will not start full medical evaluation until an Intended Parent has made a request. At that time a series of fertility tests, medical evaluations, psychological test, legal background check, and more are performed. Surrogates must pass each step before she is assigned to a couple.

 

Initial Clinical Start-Up Fees:

Most clinics will not provide any medical services without an upfront fee, and this payment serves that purpose. The payment covers the egg donation and sperm donation procedures. It also is a financial commitment to the clinic that you will follow through on the surrogacy procedure. The fee is not usually large. It is due when parents schedule their initial visit to the clinic to leave their sperm sample, or when they engage with the clinic to plan their egg donation.

 

Surrogate Compensation:

In the United States the local laws often demand that entire surrogate compensation is paid up-front into an escrow account. Payments are then released to the surrogate each month during the pregnancy. In this case there is typically a very large initial payment once the surrogate has been selected and signed. But this is balanced by very small payments made during the pregnancy itself. In overseas programs the surrogate compensation is typically paid month-by-month during the pregnancy. In this case the monthly payments for prenatal are larger because they include the surrogate’s compensation as well as clinic fees.

 

IVF Procedure and Embryo Transfer:

When the parents are ready to conceive their embryos and impregnate their surrogate, they will make these clinical payments. This fee pays for the Egg Donation, IVF procedure, and first embryo transfer. This could happen immediately after the initial clinical fees. Sometimes parents can decide to pace their finances by separating this process into multiple steps made weeks (or months) apart. Different clinics and agencies will treat the cost of medication differently. A well-managed program will include the cost of the medication in the original budget. In other cases the cost of meds is added on as an extra expense (which is generally done to make the total cost of the program appear cheaper – which is another red flag).

 

Prenatal Care:

Payment for prenatal care begins when the surrogate is confirmed pregnant. This pays for the surrogate’s housing and prenatal exams, ultrasounds, and personal oversight (including housekeeping, travel, clothing allowance, etc.). In most cases, the confirmation of pregnancy comes about 3 weeks after the IVF procedure. Payments are not refundable, so the cost of prenatal care is generally separated into installments. If for some reason the pregnancy terminates, future installments are not needed, but the intended parents will lose any payments made to that point. Payment can be made every month, or every trimester of the pregnancy.

 

Delivery and Recovery:

This payment covers the cost of the delivery of the baby and the post-natal care of the surrogate. Because deliveries often happen prematurely and without warning, this payment is often required at Week 30, well before the estimated delivery date. In some programs the surrogate’s final compensation is withheld until after the delivery to ensure she continues to be available during the bureaucratic process of apply for citizenship, passports and the return home of the baby.

 

Bureaucracy and the Return Home:

Most agencies will include at least a portion of the paperwork needed to register the baby’s birth and start the process of establishing the baby’s citizenship. That often includes the birth certificate, copies of the surrogacy contract, and hospital records of the birth.

 

Programs overseas may include add-on fees to assist the baby’s return home with the parents. The largest is often a DNA test, which can be $700 USD or more. If the legalization process requires a court order, parents can expect to pay legal fees directly to a local lawyer. Other minor payments may include having documents notarized, translated, or apostilled. These are generally quite small charges, but worth noting. A well-managed IVF and Surrogacy package will budget for almost everything: surrogate compensation, egg and sperm donation, IVF procedures, prenatal care, and the delivery. Reputable programs also will include legal assistance for bringing your baby safely home. Program fees typically do NOT include egg donors, hotel accommodations, airfare, country-specific legal processes, or extraordinary medical care for the baby or the surrogate mother. However, any reputable agent will work with you to develop a complete budget that includes all these non-standard surrogacy costs before signing any agreement.