Circle's Escrow Service for Intended Parents
Escrow management is one of the most important parts of your surrogacy journey to understand. Surrogacy escrow account management ensures your surrogate gets paid the agreed-upon amount when she expects it, without needing to handle these payments yourself. This arrangement means you don't have to manage payments directly with your surrogate.
Circle handles every financial detail securely and transparently, including managing your escrow account in-house, so you can fully focus on building a healthy relationship with your surrogate and preparing to bring your baby home.
Accounting Security Protocols
Crime Coverage Policies
Cyber Security Procedures
What Is Surrogacy Escrow?
Surrogacy escrow is a secure, dedicated account where your funds are held and managed throughout your journey — never mixed with agency operating funds, and disbursed only when expenses are verified and approved. At Circle, escrow is managed by a dedicated team of Trust Accountants who operate independently from our accountants who manage company funds, so escrow management is their sole focus, ensuring zero conflicts of interest. Every dollar is backed by extensive crime insurance, annual third-party audits, and over 30 years of protecting client funds without a single loss.
Here’s an overview of how our escrow management services work:
1. Your account is funded:
As soon as you fund your escrow account, your investment is fully insured and protected from day one. Your surrogate's compensation is then scheduled so payments arrive on time.
2. Disbursements are verified:
As expenses arise, every payment request is reviewed against your signed contracts, invoices, or receipts.
3. Transactions are protected:
Dual control disbursement approvals are required on all transfers — no single person can initiate and release a payment on their own.
How Escrow Works in a Surrogacy Journey
In most surrogacy journeys, escrow works by funding an account that’s used specifically to compensate the surrogate and cover her pregnancy-related medical expenses. The account is typically held at a bank and managed by the surrogacy agency or a third-party escrow company.
With Circle, you don’t have to pay separately for surrogacy escrow services — it’s included with our Journey Protection™ Program, which covers all agency fees and surrogate expenses. That means you won’t have to continually replenish your escrow account after paying our program’s fixed price.
Our Commitment to Your Security
We understand that your savings and careful planning for a surrogacy journey represent an extraordinary emotional commitment and a significant financial decision.
We have decades of experience safeguarding funds for intended parents who welcome their baby with complete peace of mind throughout the process as any loss of funds would be catastrophic for intended parents and surrogates.
Our Journey Protection™ Escrow ensures your escrow account is secured by layers of protection that exceed industry standards.
Annual Audit by an Independent Accounting Firm
Managed by a Separate Team of Trust Accountants with Dual Control Disbursement Approvals
Independent Insurance Bonding with Every Dollar Backed by Top Insurers
Crime Coverage Policy that Protects 100% of Escrow Funds Against Theft, Forgery, or Fraud
Enterprise Grade Cybersecurity
100% of Your Funds are Secure
Accounting Security Protocols
How your money is managed and protected:
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Annual independent audits ensure complete accountability
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Separate Trust Accountant team manages all disbursements
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Trust Accountants have no access to Circle's company operating accounts or books
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Dual control approval system means no single person can move funds
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Daily wire and ACH limits that only the Chief Financial Officer can override
Crime Coverage Policies
How your money is insured against loss:
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Extensive crime coverage policy protecting against all criminal activity
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Coverage includes: employee theft, external fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, and computer crimes
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Every dollar backed by top-rated insurers
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Protection extends to hacking and data destruction
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Multiple insurance policies provide layered protection
Cyber Security Procedures
How your information stays secure:
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Enterprise-grade security protocols advancing with industry standards
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Multifactor identity authentication for all system users
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Quarterly employee Security Awareness Training
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All data encrypted both in transit and at rest
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Cloud backup every 4 hours with 7-year retention policy
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Continuous monitoring of all third-party cloud vendors
How We Protect Every Dollar
Circle's proprietary financial protection approach, Journey Protection™ Escrow, has three key components to ensure comprehensive safeguarding of your investment.
1. Security Processes to Protect Your Future
2. Enhanced Security and Coverage Against Crime
3. Cyber Security Processes to Protect Your Information
What Sets Us Apart
Circle’s highly secured escrow service is managed with safeguards typically found only at major financial institutions. Our comprehensive approach means you benefit from protection that most agencies or firms simply can't offer.
Comprehensive insurance backing: Extensive crime coverage policy plus additional policies protect every dollar against any potential losses, errors, or crime.
Enterprise cybersecurity: Bank-level protocols including encryption, multifactor authentication, and continuous monitoring.
Proven track record: Over 30 years of protecting family funds without any loss.
Independent operational team: Trust Accountants operate separately from our operational team who handles company finances — ensuring zero conflicts of interest.
Dual control approvals: No single employee can both process and release payments without specialist review.
Third-party audits: Annual independent accounting firm reviews of all Circle-held accounts.
Begin Your Journey With Complete Confidence
With Circle, you can focus on your surrogacy journey with confidence. We’re committed to supporting you on the sometimes complex and long road to building your family.
We understand this is a meaningful investment and will treat your funds with the care and security your family deserves. Our team is here to offer you guidance and answer any questions you may have about Circle's Journey Protection™ Escrow service.
To begin your surrogacy journey with Circle, the first step is to complete our parent inquiry form. Have questions about escrow first? We're happy to walk you through it before you take that step.
Intended Parents FAQs
Below are some common questions about the escrow process for Circle intended parents. You can read our full list of FAQs about the general surrogacy process for intended parents here.
A surrogacy escrow account holds the funds for your surrogacy journey in a dedicated, secure account that’s separate from the agency’s operating funds. Your surrogate’s base pay, medical expenses, and other agreed-upon costs are paid directly from this account based on your contract’s terms, so you never have to manage those payments yourself.
At Circle, your escrow funds are held in a bonded account at a regulated and approved financial institution. From there, our dedicated team of Trust Accountants is responsible for ensuring your surrogate gets paid accurately and on time.Surrogacy requires a significant investment to cover your surrogate’s compensation, medical costs, and other related expenses, and these funds need to be properly managed and disbursed on time in the right amounts. Without reliable and secure escrow management, those funds may not be fully protected or accounted for, which could lead to financial loss, delayed payments, or disputes over payments.
Our Journey Protection™ Escrow service is designed to make sure every dollar is secure and insured from start to finish.
Yes, Journey Protection™ Escrow is automatically included for all Circle intended parents. Every family benefits from this comprehensive escrow security — it's been part of how we protect our families since 1995.
Your escrow account is managed in a discrete escrow fund by an independent Circle team of Trust Accountants. They review all disbursement requests and ensure compliance with your contracts before any funds are released.
With in-house escrow, the surrogacy agency manages funds on your behalf. With third-party escrow, a company that’s independent from the surrogacy agency manages your funds.
We’re a full-service surrogacy agency that offers in-house escrow management, so you get the benefit of working with the same team coordinating your whole journey and supporting you every step of the way. You won't have to find and work with a separate escrow company, and you’ll always know who to turn to whenever you have questions. In other words, you get independent oversight built into how your funds are managed, and you get it all under one roof with one team who knows your journey — and cares.
At Circle, we believe that whether funds are held in-house or by a 3rd party, escrow security is only defined by the strength of the protections behind it. Our in-house escrow program is supported by ongoing investments in security, insurance, compliance, and oversight to help safeguard our client's funds. These protections reflect our commitment to setting a high standard for escrow management and providing clients with confidence that their funds are secure.
Every dollar in your escrow is protected by comprehensive insurance policies backed by top-rated insurers. Along with security and fraud protection offered by our bank, an extensive crime coverage policy and additional policies protect all client funds we hold against any potential losses, errors, or crime.
Multiple safeguards work together: All outgoing wires or ACH payments require dual control approvals, which means the same employee processing payments cannot release them without another specialist reviewing and approving the payment. All escrow accounts are subject to daily limits, with only our Chief Financial Officer able to request increases from the bank.
We're at the forefront of technology, ensuring our cybersecurity procedures advance with the speed of the industry. Identity verification using multifactor authentication, security software on all devices, data encryption both in transit and at rest, quarterly employee access reviews, and continuous third-party vendor monitoring all work together to protect your data.
Circle has never had any cybersecurity incidents or breaches in our history, including any incidents with escrow funds or client data.
Along with internal controls and reconciliations, all accounts held by Circle are audited yearly by an independent accounting firm.
"One of the best things we enjoyed about Circle was their Fixed Cost Program, which allowed us to make one financial transfer. That alone alleviated so much stress and confusion. Knowing our money was fully protected let us focus on the joy of our journey."
Shared by a Circle Parent
For over 30 years, we have successfully safeguarded surrogacy funds for over 5,000 clients with Circle's fully-insured and audited escrow program. Our Journey Protection™ Escrow service uses a multi-layered security approach to protect your money.