It’s not every day that the Federal Trade Commission sends out stern warning letters on behalf of anyone working with adoption consultants.
In a highly unusual move, the FTC issued warning letters to 31 adoption intermediaries across the US. It was a much-needed response to a cottage industry that has gotten out of control. All across America, adoption facilitators and adoption consultants and other amateurs promote unlicensed adoption “services.” This runs the risk of endangering children, misleading consumers and defrauding vulnerable parents.
Don’t know if the entity you’re considering is actually licensed or not? Here’s an important resource where you can check them out. It’s called AdoptChange and it does your research for you, free of charge.
Working with Adoption Consultants or Adoption Intermediaries?
Adoption intermediaries are defined, according to the FTC, as “individuals or entities acting as middlemen in private adoptions… sometimes called adoption advertisers, facilitators, consultants, matchmakers or brokers… (who) are not licensed adoption agencies.”
Adopting parents and prospective birthparents sometimes get drawn into working with unlicensed adoption intermediaries or entities by misleading internet ads. Those ads often look like agency ads, but fail to disclose that large fees are charged for adoption-related services without having any license or certification to actually do adoptions.
These “quasi-professionals” are often people who once adopted themselves but lack any formal training or qualifications. They sometimes scout adoption websites or solicit actual agencies for case leads they can pitch to their clients. However, they don’t realize how much more goes into arranging an adoption then just “presenting a match” or “making an introduction.” And yet, for their very limited “services,” they charge thousands of dollars, then have to refer the parents to a licensed adoption agency or attorney that can provide actual adoption services under the law.
What’s Wrong with Adoption Advertisers?
In Texas, the law prohibits anyone from adoption advertising unless the ads are placed by a licensed adoption agency that is clearly identified in the ad.
This is too often ignored by Google, which often lists unlicensed adoption advertisers under the heading “adoption agency” on its maps, and allows misrepresentation through deceptive or misleading Google ad content.
One notorious “adoption advertiser” posts hopeful adopters’ profiles on their site “for free” until the unlicensed adoption advertising firm is contacted by a prospective birthparent interested in a certain profile. That’s when the hopeful adopters reportedly get hit with a fee of more than $18k for the “advertising.” They then have to hire whatever agency or attorney who is contracting with the advertiser for yet another additional fee (note: case expenses are all extra.)
As one hopeful adopter who escaped that scheme told Abrazo: “if it smells like extortion, it probably is. I just wish we had known what we were getting into upfront. It would’ve saved us a lot of money and heartache.”
When “Helping” Goes Wrong
Once folks adopt (or place) successfully, it’s not uncommon for them to want to help others. Some start support groups to share information and answers with others. Others hold Zoom meetings to offer resources to families needing post-adoption support. Adoptees, birthparents and adopters have launched blogs and podcasts to educate others about adoption. And still others go to school to get degrees that will enable them to become licensed adoption professionals themselves.
That’s the right way to go about helping. But when people seek to make a living off adoption. without having the proper credentials to offer professional adoption services, that’s when helping goes wrong. (Even if they mean well.) And that can put vulnerable children at great risk.
Why Adoption Consumers Need Protection
Abrazo was once contacted by an adoption consultant who’d learned our agency was in need of a specific kind of family for a case due very soon. They described the family they had in mind, and we suggested that they submit their homestudy and profile to us directly. Within a day, the adoption consultant called back to say “forget that family, they can’t afford to adopt.”
Oddly enough, though, we got a call a few days later revealing that family had gotten a cold call from an unknown adoption consultant they’d never even contacted. The “consultant” had searched adoption profiles online. This stranger offered, for a large fee due right away, to reveal to them the name of the San Antonio agency seeking a certain sort of family for a baby to be born very soon. The couple said no to this shakedown, then called around on their own to find out if there actually even was a legitimate adoption opportunity.
Whatever that adoption intermediary’s intentions, it wasn’t an act of kindness being offered– not really. And it’s that sort of exploitation that the FTC is rightly seeking to stop.
Tell the Whole Truth
The FTC warning to adoption intermediaries also cautions adoption consultants, advertisers, brokers and others against contractual agreements that censor consumers from sharing honest reviews about the “services” they receive. It cautions them against false claims of success in the number of adoptions arranged or quick placement wait times. And it warns them not to oversell open adoption by not revealing that these arrangements are not legally enforceable in all states (remember, in Texas voluntary contact agreements in open adoption are a matter of trust, not backed by law.)
Will this warning letter from the FTC convince all unlicensed adoption intermediaries to tell the whole truth? We can only hope. Will it persuade the bad actors to get out of business? Probably not.
Yet if it helps anyone who’s considering working with adoption consultants to contact a licensed nonprofit adoption agency or an ethical adoption attorney instead? Then it just might save some adoptee somewhere from a disastrous arrangement, that could surely make it well worth the cost of the postage.
