The question, “How much does surrogacy cost” can be intimidating. If you are an Intended Parent looking for a surrogacy agency to work with, you have probably seen a wide range of numbers from different agencies. In this Surrogacy Talk, you will get an overview of the numbers you can expect if you partner with Golden Surrogacy. Frank will also discuss the dangers of working with an agency that advertises inaccurate costs. At the end of the day, whether you choose to partner with Golden or another agency, you deserve accuracy and transparency.
The question, “How much does surrogacy cost” can be intimidating. If you are an Intended Parent looking for a surrogacy agency to work with, you have probably seen a wide range of numbers from different agencies. In this Surrogacy Talk, you will get an overview of the numbers you can expect if you partner with Golden Surrogacy. Frank will also discuss the dangers of working with an agency that advertises inaccurate costs. At the end of the day, whether you choose to partner with Golden or another agency, you deserve accuracy and transparency.
Welcome to Surrogacy Talk with me, your fabulous host and family building expert, Frank Golden. I'll be talking about surrogacy, IVF, and making babies. Hello and welcome to Surrogacy Talk with me, Frank Golden. I am the founder and agency director of Golden Surrogacy. And today I'm going to be discussing with you how much does surrogacy actually cost. But before I dive into the numbers, I would like to remind all of you to please like and subscribe and follow us on Spotify or YouTube or anywhere else that you can stream your podcasts. Okay. Let's dive right in and go through some of these numbers. I wanted to make this video because oftentimes,"how much does surrogacy cost?" That question can be intimidating, and the numbers are all over the place. And so while it does vary for each agency, in terms of how numbers are presented and what the fees are from the various service providers, what I'm about to share with you will give you at least a good overview. Now, the important cost buckets to understand is that you will have your agency fee and your Surrogate related fees, a.k.a. her compensation. That's kind of one bucket. And so oftentimes agencies will advertise that and agents that the surrogacy journey is only going to cost $100,000. Well, typically they only mean $100,000 when you add up their agency fee and the Surrogate Compensation Package. So the average agency fee we know right now nationwide is about $30,000. And then if you're comping your Surrogate between $50,000 and $60,000 plus an incidentals which gets you to about $70,000, you've got $100,000 and that could be plus or minus another $10,000 or $15,000 depending on the exact agency fee and the exact Surrogate compensation. So you might see an agency saying that the process is going to cost between $100,00 and $120,000. Newsflash-- that doesn't include the fertility center fees, if you need an egg donor, your legal expenses, escrow funding, or extra insurance. Those expenses are an entirely different cost bucket that I like to call additional third party costs. And so just kind of going through those line items, as I mentioned, you will have legal expenses. This is going to include the Gestational Surrogacy Agreement between you and your Surrogate and her representation. That usually averages around $10,000. If an egg donor is involved, then you will have additional legal fees on that side of the equation. Insurance costs, we typically say somewhere between $15,000 and $45,000. Yes, huge range, but it depends. Are you purchasing your Surrogate a private insurance policy on the health exchange, or is this a third party policy that's underwritten by a private insurance company? And the cost of those policies again can go up to that $45,000 range, sometimes even higher if multiples are involved. So the insurance factor that is huge. And then you'll have things like escrow management fund fees and then the fees that you pay to the IVF clinic. The average cost with the clinic is about $40,000, and usually that will include an egg retrieval, cycle management, perhaps medication, your Surrogate's screening, it really depends on what's included in the specific package at your clinic. What I tell Intended Parents is if you are a set of Intended Parents with embryos created already from a previous cycle, or perhaps you've already gone through an egg donation component and you have your embryos ready to go you will typically spend around $150,000. And that really depends on the exact agency fee, the exact Surrogate compensation and the exact situation with her insurance. Okay. But $150,000 is usually the floor in those scenarios. Let me be very clear there. If you are an Intended Parent that is going through egg donation, then you need to factor in that you've got egg donor compensation and additional medical fees that are with the clinic, and your clinical package may be more than $40,000. So you really need to budget a higher amount. And that's why we say, you know, a surrogacy journey can cost $150,000 upwards of $200,000 to $225,000. The exact number that you land on really depends on your specific circumstances and what services you require. But generally speaking, anyone saying that you can go through a surrogacy journey and pay less than $100,000, they are not giving you accurate information. And as I've outlined here, there are very set figures that I call the floor where you really can't get lower unless you are able to perhaps have insurance that is applicable over some of your fees at the fertility center. And there are some really great resources that we could cover with you. What I would recommend really to narrow it down and figure out what applies to your specific family building goals would be to set up a consultation, go to goldensurrogacy.com, fill out our Intended Parent request form, consultation request form, and let's have a dialog. We will get to know you, find out what your family build and goals are and determine what services are going to be required to help you fulfill those dreams. And this way you will have a better outlook in terms of what you can expect to spend. We're not just going to throw a blanket number at you and say,"Okay, come up with X amount of dollars." I want you to know where you stand on this budget and know what numbers apply to you. And that really is all that I have. Again, fill out a consultation. Let's go through these numbers together. I could go line item by line item, and this entire segment could become very boring for you, but much more interesting over the phone. So I would say, give us a call and let's talk At the end of the day, what's important for me and my team here at Golden is that, like I always say, in all my all my videos and all my podcasts, all my segments, is regardless of which agency you decide to build your family with, I hope it's us here at Golden, we want to make sure that you have accurate data and accurate information. And so sometimes, you know, if the, "how much does this cost?" If our numbers seem high, know that we are being conservative, we are giving you the right numbers, the accurate numbers, so that you don't embark on a surrogacy journey and get halfway through and say, "Wow, I can't afford this. The agency misquoted me." Accuracy and transparency is so important, and this is really a pillar stone of how I operate the agency and and I hope that you find that valuable. But that is all I have for you in this segment of Surrogacy Talk. Once again, I am Frank Golden here with my Surrogacy Talk. I would encourage all of you to, like and subscribe, follow us on Spotify, YouTube, anywhere that you can stream podcasts. If you have additional questions, perhaps there is something specific about the cost of surrogacy that you would like me to hone in on, I would be more than happy to do that. As I stated, there are many different cost buckets and things that I can dive into, and I really want the the materials here that I'm putting out to be engaging and answer all of your questions so that you don't zone out and that you find all of this helpful. Send in your questions. You can tweet me @GoldenSurrogacy. You can send DMS on my Instagram it's @Golden_Surrogacy. I am here ready to answer all of your questions so that you have a fantastic family building journey through surrogacy. And once again, I am Frank Golden reminding all of you that Everyone Deserves a Family.