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| Retainer Fees in Surrogacy Arrangements | A retainer is called a fee, which is paid to one participant in a surrogacy arrangement, as a rule to the Surrogate Mother, up front once the participants come to an agreement to work together. It should be pointed out that the issue of retainer fees in an independent surrogacy arrangement has raised a lot of discussions on many online forums, which regard the issue of surrogacy.
The most widespread reason behind requesting a retainer fee is considered to be the necessity of the “seriousness” establishing of both participants as for the given surrogacy arrangement. However, it is not a subject without debate.
One of the most common problems many Surrogate Mothers and couples of the Intended Parents working independently, or not applying to the service of any surrogacy agency with the aim of facilitating their surrogacy, is considered to be the whole matching process. There are a lot of potential pitfalls, which may occur during the matching phase, however, one, which comes up again and again is people, finding someone, they consider being the “perfect match” only to find out that this person does not treat surrogacy as seriously as it had been though originally. The possible result of it may become the couple of the Intended Parents, dragging their feet about receiving a contract drawn up or getting an egg donor or coordinating monitoring either with their clinic, or with a Surrogate Mother, who hesitates about her going through the screening, or who realizes all of a sudden, that she does not have all that support, she needs in order to be able to proceed with the surrogacy. Any of these situations is practically impossible, in case if the surrogacy arrangement is conducted through an agency, because the sheer paperwork, as well as pre–matching screening, which most surrogacy agencies require, tend to screen out those potential Surrogate Mothers, who are not positive that they are ready to go on with further surrogacy arrangements.
The combination of the above mentioned screening as well as the initial outlay of a retainer to the surrogacy agency work to make sure that the couple of the Intended Parents, who sign up a contract are ready and willing to proceed. However, it is quite different with those Intended Parents, who are looking for an independent surrogacy arrangement, because most places online let potential Surrogate Mothers, as well as potential couples of the Intended Parents to advertise for free or for a small fee, making it possible for those who are simply considering surrogacy to put their names out for matching before they even become sure that they are ready to go on with the whole surrogacy procedure.
This is exactly where the matter of retainer fees comes into play. Most potential Surrogate Mothers, who are looking for the couples of Intended Parents online complain of running into replies for their advertisements from couples, who have not even done any research into the whole surrogacy thing, especially for expenses, which surrogacy involves, before they make any reply. There is no doubt, that surrogacy may be truly considered a perfect way of bringing children into families, which have troubles with having them otherwise, however, this is one of the most expensive ways of doing so as well. And together with those lines, most couples of potential Intended Parents consider the retainer fee as simply some another expense, they are going to face with during their way, and for some of them this fee can even break the whole deal. As a rule Surrogate Mothers want to have the retainer fee upon a “verbal agreement” to work together, yet before the formal contract is completed and signed, because the very contract stage can take quite a long period of time, the retainer is as good faith money, which can help to make sure that the Intended Parents are ready to follow with it.
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