As you can see from my diagram money can be sent to either your representation, or to you directly. It is your right to choose where your money is sent. However, unless you have reason to believe that there is an issue at your agency regarding money, it is my belief that you should allow your agent to field all payments.
The reason for having payment sent to your agent as opposed to you, is that your agency will have a knowledgeable person reviewing checks for accuracy. The check needs to be issued within the SAG specified amount of time, for the correct amounts, etc. If you receive your checks directly, and deposit a check that is later discovered to be incorrect for whatever reason, there is nothing your agent can do. The act of depositing that check is an acceptance of its terms, and becomes a binding contract.
Another reason to have payment sent to your agent is that your agent will keep track of your conflicts. Your agents will contact ad agencies, etc. within the proper amount of time to determine whether or not a spot will continue being held. This is another reason you pay your agency a percentage.
Depending on whether or not your agency is SAG, or ATA franchised, that will dictate when your agency is mandated to issue you a check. For ATA franchised agents, their website states that their agents have 15 days from receipt of a check to issue payment to their clients. SAG franchised agencies have 5 business days to issue payment, unless the check is being sent out of state. It is then 7 calendar days from receipt of payment. All monies, other than commercial payments, are 3 business days from receipt of payment.
If you have questions about whether or not a check has been issued for a commercial, you can contact the Payroll Company, or paymaster. You will need to be able to provide the product, commercial title, and the commercial id #, or “ISCI” code.
Throughout my career I have heard a handful of horror stories about talent payments. In rare cases companies that, in order to sustain and maintain 'solvency', have elected to hold their clients' money well in excess of the turnaround deadlines that are dictated by SAG and ATA. When the company received more talents’ money, the previous batch was then processed and released. In the most unfortunate cases, I heard of this cycle continuing until there is shortage of money. It is at that point when those companies needed to make a choice. Pay them, or pay the actor. I am sure you can surmise who the loser is in this equation. The actor ends up losing their money, and their agent. While cases such as these are truly (thankfully) the exception and nowhere near the rule.
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