Is there any such thing as private adoption in Wisconsin anymore?

Question

What does a private adoption involve compared to an agency adoption and how does monies compare? I am told that an adoption ranges from $15,000 - $30,000 dollars. Why does it cost so much?

Answer 1

http://www.findlaw.com/

Type in adoption and the area in Wisconsin you are in. Most adoption agency fees run for $20k-$40k. Those fees go towards paying birth mother living expenses, medical costs, home study and also towards the organization that you choose to use. If you choose to go through a lawyer who specializes in only adoption (which I most recommend) they are still an agency, they just don't have all those actual fees. They encourage their birth mothers to go on Medicaid so that there are no medical expenses and more money can be spent towards them and the baby once he/she is born.

Answer 2

the price for an adoption has gone way up since the federal tax credit was made a law. also many states also have an adoption tax credit. this was to make adoption easier for the general population, but at the same time adoption agencies bank on the credit and raised their fees. not that i think an agency shouldn't charge nothing, just that 15k is alittle outragous. i'll break down our adoption costs if that will help you any. if we'd found the birthmother on our own, which i don't reccomend you do, it would have been 9500 less.

agency fee $7500 plus a $2000 donation to their orphanage in guatamala.

homestudy~$1000

attorney`$5000

birthmother expenses`$4000

this does not include the medical costs we chose to be responsible for with the birthmother. our total cost was 20k. we are eligable for the tax credit which over 5 years will reimburse us for $10652 and our state credit which is 50% of the federal since our daughter was born in our state. if she was not born in our state it would have been a 25% credit and if she had been special needs our state credit would have been 75% of the federal.


now the reason i don't reccomend finding a birthmother on your own is that there should be some sort of guarantee with an agency that if the birthmother changes her mind your fee to them rolls over into the next match. you will not have this protection on your own. also a good agency will be able to better screen potentional birthmothers much better than you can and better weed out scammers. either way i wish you the best.

Answer 3

Private adoptions are an option and are less expensive then agency adoptions, for the most part. It is possible to complete a private adoption for less than $10,000 if you are lucky. Adoptive parents have to pay for advertising to find the birthmom, her medical expenses, possibly some living expenses, there could be traveling expenses and the big expense is legal fees-your lawyer and the one representing her. It's unfortunate that everything is inflated these days when it comes to adoption.
There is an almost $11,000 tax credit available for families who complete an adoption (either domestic or international). That does help lessen the burden. Good luck!