Escrow Agent?

[drbrock]

A client of mine wants me to become an escrow agent. However, I can't find any real information on how to become one.

I am a CPA and live in Florida.

If anyone can help it would be appreciated. Google has not been my friend in this case.

 

[kranky]

I imagine you need a surety bond. Is this for real estate? If so there would most likely be state laws related to serving as an escrow agent and you'd need to work with an attorney.

 

[drbrock]

Not for real estate. It has to deal with egg donors and surrogacy. I have an attorney on my staff I can use but did not want to involve him if possible.

 

[skimple]

What exactly are you being asked to "escrow"? I'm familiar with using escrow for money, source code, real estate deeds, and even plain documents.

I'm not familiar with "medical" escrow. Are you being asked to hold biological samples? It would seem there could be very significant risks that would require specialized insurance.

Perhaps you are on the verge of creating a new industry. But it begs the question - why can't your client find someone else to do it? Is it because no one will?

 

[drbrock]

It is just handling the money between the parent and donor ultimately.

My client works with attorneys a lot but she said that they are sometimes not reachable and slow. I can fix both of those problems within reason.

That is quite common down here. You would not believe how many clients I get for just picking up the phone. The most common complaint I get for people switching accountants is that they are never reachable.

 

[cabri]

Recommend that you contact Jeeebus.
He is a legal beagle out of Ft Lauderdale and well respected here at ATOT.

If he can not help; being in the legal profession, he should be able to redirect you.

 

[Jeeebus]

He is a legal beagle out of Ft Lauderdale and well respected here at ATOT.

That may be the nicest thing anyone other than my mom has said about me... wait, mom, are on ATOT now?

Surrogacy really isn't my thing (I do commercial/corporate litigation), but there are only two statutes on the subject here in Florida. If the surrogate is carrying the biological child of the father, then no compensation is allowed. If not, she can be paid reasonable living/medical expenses, but not 'compensation.'

I am not aware of any legal requirements for someone serving as escrow agent for a surrogacy. Typical contracts would have some sort of payment schedule for distributing the money to a surrogate. There are law firms that serve as escrow agents because then the money is kept in a trust account regulated by the Florida Bar. Other than that, I'm sure there are form contracts out there that would probably work.

I can foresee all sorts of headaches for an escrow agent if a dispute arises between the parents and the surrogate, but if the surrogate contract between them is good and you protect yourself with an escrow agreement, you should be ok.

This is usually where people preface the above with "IANAL," but unfortunately that's not available to me.