do triggers/procedures run instantly?

hello.

i have the following trigger:

CREATE TRIGGER trig_person_accessorclass BEFORE INSERT ON Person FOR EACH
ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE sp_person_accessorclass();

the corresponding function inserts a row into the accessor_class table.

the issue is that when i insert a row into person and immediately query the
accessor_class table, i don't find anything.  does it take some amount of
time for the trigger/sp to run?  is it just placed in a queue or something?
can i speed this up or is it best to not count on the performance of the
function?

thanks

chris