Does your contract survive the agency's closure?
If your agency closes, your contract with the intended parents still stands. The gestational carrier agreement is usually between you and the intended parents, not between you and the agency, so the agency closing does not end it. Your compensation, your reimbursements, your insurance and your parentage arrangements are written into that agreement.
What the agency's closure does take away is the work the agency was doing: case management, clinic coordination, scheduling, follow-up on reimbursements, and in some cases, holding the money. Those gaps are real, and some of them are urgent. But they can be filled. The contract is the part that does not need to be rebuilt.
Your attorney can confirm what your specific agreement says about the agency's role and what happens if it stops operating. Call your attorney early. Your attorney works for you, not for the agency, which is exactly why you should have had your own from the start. Read more about the contract and your own attorney.
Where is the money: agency-held versus independent escrow
Whether you get paid depends on one fact: where the money is.
Independent escrow. If your compensation is held by an independent licensed escrow agent, it is still there. The escrow agent keeps paying on the contract schedule, whatever happens to the agency. The agency never held the money, so it cannot lose it.
Agency-held funds. If the agency held the money, or used an escrow company it controlled, the money may be gone, frozen, or tied up in the agency's collapse. Surrogates in that position have gone unpaid mid-pregnancy.
How to tell which one you have: ask for the escrow agent's name and license, and a statement showing the funded balance. A real independent escrow agent can give you both. If your agency cannot or will not tell you who holds your money, treat that as a warning.
At Private Label Surrogacy, intended parents fund an independent licensed escrow agent: $10,000 at match and the balance before medications start. They may choose their own escrow company. PLS has always worked this way. Read how escrow protects you and the difference between independent and agency-held escrow.
What happened at Surro Connections and SEAM
Two failures in the last two years show what is at stake.
The Surro Connections agency collapsed in late 2025. A federal indictment followed in August 2026; the case is pending, and the charges are allegations, not findings.
The SEAM escrow company also failed, with more than $16 million involved.
In both cases, surrogates whose compensation sat with those companies went unpaid mid-pregnancy. They were still pregnant and still under medical care. What they did not have was the money owed to them, or anyone coordinating that care.
The lesson is not that every agency is at risk. It is that the structure decides who carries the risk. When the agency holds the money, you carry the risk of the agency failing. When an independent licensed escrow agent holds it, you do not.
The three surrogates PLS took on pro bono
Between 2025 and 2026, Private Label Surrogacy took on three surrogates stranded by failed agencies, pro bono. PLS re-established their case management, escrow and clinic coordination, so their pregnancies continued with support.
Pro bono means PLS charged nothing for that work. Surrogates never pay PLS, and these three were no exception.
Details of the three cases are being confirmed with Nancy Block, RN, and will be published only in a form that does not identify the surrogates.
What re-establishing support means in practice:
- Case management. A PLS case manager, who has been a surrogate herself, became each surrogate's point of contact.
- Escrow. Working with the intended parents and the attorneys to put the compensation into, or confirm it was in, an independent licensed escrow account.
- Clinic coordination. Reconnecting with the fertility clinic and the OB, so appointments, records and medications continued without a gap.
A five-step checklist if your agency has closed
If your agency has closed, or stopped answering, do these five things. Get every answer in writing.
| Step | Who to contact | What to ask for in writing | Suggested timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Confirm your escrow balance | The escrow agent named in your contract | The agent's name and license, and a statement of the funded balance and payments made | Today |
| 2. Call your attorney | Your own attorney | What your contract says about the agency's role, and your next steps | Today |
| 3. Keep your clinic or OB informed | Your fertility clinic or OB | Confirmation that appointments and medications continue, and copies of your records | This week |
| 4. Contact the intended parents | The intended parents, or their attorney | Confirmation that they will keep funding escrow under the contract | This week, with your attorney's advice |
| 5. Contact an agency that will take your case | An agency with independent escrow and case managers | Who your case manager will be, what they will charge you, and how escrow will be handled | As soon as you can |
A few notes:
- Do not stop your medications because the agency closed. Your medical care continues on your clinic's instructions.
- Keep copies of everything: your contract, payment records, receipts, and every message with the agency.
- Do not sign anything new without your attorney reading it first.
How transferring to PLS works for a surrogate mid-journey
Yes, you can switch agencies during a pregnancy. PLS has taken on stranded surrogates mid-journey. The contract with the intended parents continues, and case management transfers.
How it usually works:
- You call PLS. Phone (847) 496-0600, or email team@privatelabelsurrogacy.com. Tell the team where you are in the journey and what has happened.
- PLS looks at where the money is. If it is with an independent licensed escrow agent, the first problem is already solved. If it is not, PLS works with the intended parents and the attorneys on a plan to fund independent escrow.
- A case manager is assigned. Natalie Gaudio-Fricano or Jenni Symons, both former surrogates, takes over as your point of contact.
- Clinic and OB coordination resumes. Your case manager contacts your clinic or OB, collects your records, and makes sure nothing is missed.
- Your contract continues. Your attorney and the parents' attorney may amend the agreement to name the new agency's role.
You do not pay PLS. Surrogates never do.
Questions to ask before you sign with any agency
The best time to protect yourself is before you sign. Ask any agency, including PLS:
- Who holds my compensation? Ask for the escrow agent's name and license. Independent and licensed is the answer you want.
- Can I see a statement showing the funded balance before I start medications?
- Do I have my own attorney, independent of the agency and the parents?
- Does the agency employ the psychologist who evaluates me, or is that person independent?
- Who will my case manager be, and has she been a surrogate?
- How many active matches does my case manager carry?
- What happens to my journey if the agency closes?
An agency that answers these quickly and in writing is telling you something. So is one that does not.
If you are stranded right now, call PLS today. If you have a question first, ask SurrogacyHotline.com, the free expert Q&A sister site to PLS, which answers within 24 to 48 hours. For the full picture of how PLS supports surrogates, see surrogate support.
Reviewed by [attorney name], [firm], on [date]. Statements about Surro Connections and SEAM are pending review by counsel.
Sources
- SEEDS, Society for Ethics in Egg Donation and Surrogacy, of which Nancy Block, RN, is a former President.
- American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), recommendations for practices using gestational carriers. https://www.asrm.org