There exist three sorts of “retainer fees”:
1. there is the retainer fee, which will be dedicated from the overall compensation of the Surrogate Mother once the surrogacy is complete – in case if she were asking for a $15,000 fee and a $1,000 retainer, she would usually end up receiving $1here is the retainer fee, which will be dedicated from the overall compensation of the Surrogate Mother once the surrogacy is complete – in case if she were asking for a $15,000 fee and a $1,000 retainer, she would usually end up receiving $14,000 either during or after her pregnancy. In this case the fee is deducted from the final compensation, and here is a new question to arise: what may occur if the Surrogate Mother does not get pregnancy within the timeframe, which is agreed upon by both participants? Can the Surrogate Mother hope to receive the money, she spent back? Does the couple of the Intended Parents consider it as compensation for the pre – pregnancy stage? And in case if yes, should the Surrogate Mother simply work is as such from the very beginning? Any of these things are to be discussed, decided and mentioned in the Surrogacy Contract, simply because no matter, how both participants hope and assume a pregnancy will occur, there is always a chance that they may fail.
2. The Surrogate Mother uses the retainer fee as an early expense account – she uses this money to pay for medications, doctor appointments, etc. The couple of the Intended Parents will have to pay this money anyhow, just presented to the Surrogate Mother before the signing of the Surrogacy Contract. In this case if the fee is considered to be an early expense account, the couple of the Intended Parents along with their Surrogate Mother are to agree on how expenses after the initial retainer fee is gone will be paid, as well as how the Surrogate Mother is going to account for the expenses, which are applied to the retainer fee.
3. The Surrogate Mother may ask for the retainer fee as additional compensation for all the work that she goes into the pre – pregnancy stage of a surrogacy. In this case the situation occurs to be fairly clear, because the retainer fee was merely considered to be some extra money for the Surrogate Mother, there would be no question left of under what circumstances it should be refunded. This is also a sort of retainer fee, most couples of Intended Parents seem to have a problem with. They, as well as some other Surrogate Mothers have a question if the “trust” in a surrogacy agreement comes from everything, from signing a contract to handing over the baby, is to be spelled out or sealed financially. In the current environment for any independent surrogacy arrangement – where it seems more and more common to encounter scamming Surrogate Mothers – most couples of Intended Parents also question the motives of a Surrogate Mother seeking money before a contract is signed.
People, who ask for a retainer fee, are quick to point out that lawyers, as well as surrogacy agencies ask the same without being considered as money – hungry institutions. And the number of “you seem to be a perfect match, we would like to work with you” replies that lead to “we did not even realize that surrogacy would be such an expensive thing, we do not think that we will be able to handle it” has grown sufficiently, which left many Surrogate Mothers unsure of whether those Intended Parents, who consider that they are “ready to get going right now” are or are going to stall about getting the contracts signed, the inseminations or In Vitro Fertilization scheduled, etc. And, it should be mentioned, that this fact is excruciatingly frustrating for the Surrogate Mother, who would like to be pregnant yesterday.
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