Legal Fees in connection with fertility treatments: HSA Eligibility

What are legal fees in connection with fertility treatments?

Couples who have experienced fertility issues have myriad options available to them in order to conceive a child, such as fertility drugs, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), donor eggs, surrogacy, donor embryos, reproductive surgery, gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT) (BabyCenter). While the vast majority of these treatments directly involve the potential mother and father, the picture can become a bit more complicated in the case of surrogacy, where legal contracts may enter the equation.

Legal fees in connection with fertility treatments most often involve the production of a surrogacy contract, which is usually drafted by an attorney, whom will charge a fee for this service. These surrogacy arrangements involve a woman acting as the third party for another person or couple and to relinquish that child for them after birth. In most cases, surrogacy contracts are essential in minimizing the potential for destructive disputes down the road and can ensure that the stipulations of the agreement between the parents and the surrogate are explicitly laid out in writing (Agency for Surrogacy Solutions).

In this case, because these legal fees directly relate to a surrogate, they would not be eligible for reimbursement with a FSA, HSA, or HRA because surrogacy expenses are never eligible as they don't affect a function of the body of the accountholder, their spouse, or a qualified dependent.