Why does American Adoptions Cost More Than Some Adoption Professionals?

Testimonial:

I would suggest every family read this article and especially follow the link to the questions at the end of this article and make sure that you ask them. The article is packed with good advice and is worth the read. It saved my husband and I from joining an agency that appeared too good to be true. This article can save you a lot of frustration, money, and time.

- Lisa and Craig

Below are nine reasons why American Adoptions costs more than other professionals followed by a series of questions you can ask any professional.

1. Counseling - American Adoptions provides 24 hour, seven days a week counseling support to our birth mothers. This allows better availability to help these birth mothers decide what is the best choice for their baby.
2. List management - Other professionals rarely monitor their adoptive family waiting list. This means they will often accept many more families on their list than they are able to place babies with. This is a chronic hidden problem in the adoption field. Because of poor list management, most agencies will sign up twice as many families than completed adoptions.
3. Honesty of costs - Many professionals estimate adoption expenses far lower than what they typically experience. This leads many families expecting to pay less only to be shocked at time of placement or when an adoption doesn’t work out. Every year, we calculate the amount of our adoptions and provide more accurate estimates.
4. Hidden risks - Some professionals charge hourly for their services. This can provide a false estimate of actual total expenses. For example, a prominent adoption attorney currently estimates his fees at $16,000 to $20,000 for a successful adoption. The $20,000 fee estimate however does not include his legal expenses for providing legal services for birth mothers who do not choose adoption. In these cases, his legal expenses can reach $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000 in addition to the successful adoption expenses. While there are at risk expenses with American Adoptions, our placement fee is fully refundable if a birth mother changes her mind. If a professional’s fees are at risk, it is very important to determine their experience, client satisfaction, and success rate. It is not uncommon for families to lose thousands of dollars before determining their adoption professional is small, inexperienced, or not that good.
5. Professionalism and experience - Many families can overlook an organization’s professionalism. Professionalism can be a number of factors. How does the organization present themselves in person, online, and over the phone? Are their written materials professional and informative? How stable and reputable is their organization? Does their staff have solid credentials? What kind of experience does their staff have in adoption? What does their website look like? Do they seem competent and responsive to your needs? Make sure you join an organization where you fully understand their advantages and disadvantages this will lead you to greater satisfaction. A company’s professionalism and experience is often a mirror image of their success. Relate professionalism and experience to choosing a heart surgeon, would you want someone to operate on you if their offices were dirty and when you visited they had no patients? What if they didn’t remember your name or really struggled to explain their procedure to you? What if they just got out of medical school and you were their first patient? What if they didn’t show up to appointments and didn’t return your calls for days?
6. Wider fee ranges - Since we work in 50 states, we have more variation in expenses because each state is slightly different. Each state has variation in the legal procedures, living expenses, Medicaid, and health insurance. Because of these variations, our fee estimates have wider ranges than if we worked in only one state. In other words, in one state living expenses may be lower and therefore your adoption might be on the lower end of our range. On the other hand, your adoption might occur in a state where the legal work is more involved and therefore your adoption might be at the higher end of the range. For example, a typical adoption in Ohio might average $22,000 whereas an adoption in Missouri might average $25,000. Variation isn’t just related to by state it also is related to the needs of the birth parents. We allow each family to set their budget so you have control over any budget limitations. The advantage in working in so many states is that we reach more birth mothers.
7. Advertising - American Adoptions spends more in advertising than most adoption professionals. This results in reaching more women facing an unplanned pregnancy.
8. Marketing research - Advertising and networking are worthless without marketing research. American Adoptions invests a great deal of time in reviewing the effectiveness of our advertisements, mediums, and networking connections. This allows us to cut back in areas that are no longer producing. Most professionals do not perform marketing research to determine advertising and networking effectiveness, this means you will likely spend much more in advertising than is necessary. If a professional claims to spend less in advertising per family than American Adoptions, then you should expect to have longer waiting times. If a professional is suggesting they spend less than American Adoptions on advertising and yet their waiting times claim to be as good as or better than American Adoptions, then it should be reviewed with great caution. When things don’t add up there usually is a reason.
9. Quality of service - We offer more services to birth parents and adoptive families. These services typically make the adoption process better. American Adoption’s birth mothers typically feel more supported and are provided a wealth of excellent information and resources at their fingertips. Adoptive families feel supported during the adoption process and are educated regarding the pitfalls and roadblocks. This education and support provides the services necessary to navigate through the challenging waters of adoption. Like anything in life, adoption has its challenges but our clients feel much more secure with our staff being there through the good and tough times.