If you’ve ventured into the world of international surrogacy, you may have heard the term surrogacy escrow used alongside screening, matching, legal advice, and clinic appointments. For many people, surrogacy escrow sounds like financial jargon that belongs in the world of property settlements rather than family building.

Escrow, or what we refer to as ‘trust funds’ in Australia, is a mechanism for intended parents to set aside funds to reimburse the surrogate for expenses she will incur throughout the journey, including medical costs, maternity clothing, childcare, counselling, and other agreed reimbursements.

In international surrogacy, and particularly in the United States and Canada, surrogacy escrow services are used for financial management of the arrangement. Instead of funds sitting in the intended parents’ account, or the surrogate’s account, the funds sit in escrow, with the surrogacy escrow provider releasing the money in accordance with the Surrogacy Agreement.

Some very important things to be aware of:

Independent surrogacy escrow companies operate by ensuring no conflicts of interest, independently managing significant funds to help everyone in a surrogacy arrangement feel secure and trust that financial disputes will be managed professionally. Escrow companies are also bonded, or have an underwriter so if there as any financial mismanagement, the intended parents and surrogates are protected.

Surrogacy agencies are not well-regulated in most parts of the world. Some agencies will hold surrogacy escrow funds on behalf of intended parents. This is bad practice, and there have been several instances of agency owners misappropriating and poorly managing the funds. Some intended parents have lost huge sums of money when an agency has misappropriated funds. Unfortunately, intended parents may have to rely on criminal investigations to recover some of all of the funds.

The best practice, as advised by professionals around the world, is that funds must be independently managed by a surrogacy escrow company, not by agencies.

My advice is that you should refuse to work with a surrogacy matching service that handles funds itself. You should insist on your funds being managed by an independent surrogacy escrow service which is verified, trusted and bonded.

Should we introduce escrow for surrogacy in Australia?

Surrogacy is built on trust, teamwork, and good communication. But it also involves money, which can create awkwardness, even in the strongest of relationships.

We do not currently have surrogacy escrow in Australia, and expense management is handled between the parties. It can be uncomfortable for a surrogate to ask, “Can you transfer me money for the scan I had last week?” Equally, intended parents can feel uncomfortable transferring large amounts upfront. Many arrangements find that a bank card, holding a funds balance from the intended parents, is provided to the surrogate for her to use for expenses as they arise.

Independent surrogacy escrow would be useful for many Australian surrogacy arrangements. When surrogacy escrow is in place, the surrogate simply submits receipts or invoices to the escrow provider. The payment is made promptly, and no one in the arrangement needs to have those conversations directly.

Surrogacy escrow must be managed by an independent service with appropriate financial regulation, accountability and oversight.

Australia’s surrogacy laws are being reviewed in 2025-2026. There are proposals for regulating surrogacy matching services, and escrow services. It is my view that matching services and financial management should be entirely separate and independent of each other.

If you are new to surrogacy, you can read about how to find a surrogate, or how to become a surrogate yourself. You can also download the free Surrogacy Handbook which explains the processes and options.