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A survey by central London solicitors Seddons shows that whilst a third of people would consider a pre-nuptial arrangement there is a significant 65% who believe it is unromantic and a third who would consider it unlucky.

The credit crunch has sparked a rise in the number of Brits trying to protect their dwindling assets before marriage - with Hollywood-style pre-nuptial arrangements. The increase comes in the wake of the economic slowdown, which has wiped billions off the values of property, share and investment portfolios of the rich and famous. A string of high-profile divorce settlements have also been hailed as a factor, the latest being the Madonna/Guy Ritchie announcement that their marriage is at an end.  As far as we know, Madonna & Ritchie didn’t have a prenup.

Deborah Jeff, Partner and Head of Family Law at Seddons said: ''The starting point now after a long marriage is that spouses can expect to see equal division of assets generated during the marriage, rather than the homemaker having their reasonable needs met and the balance of the wealth remaining with the breadwinner. And if that wasn't enough to make spouses nervous, fear of losing more money in the current economic crisis appears to have driven those contemplating marriage to become even more protective of their assets. It should be borne in mind, however, that at present in England and Wales a prenuptial agreement is going to be most effective after a short, childless marriage”

She continued: ''Despite that, for those who have been previously married or are bringing more wealth into a marriage, pre-nups are the best way of protecting and ring fencing their assets and regulating what will happen in the event of it irretrievably breaking down. Traditionally the exclusive domain of Hollywood stars and the super-rich, prenuptial agreements are not yet binding in England and Wales, but judges are now taking the details into consideration and increasing the weight given to them when determining financial settlements in divorce proceedings. 

“Prenups also considerably reduce the financial and emotional costs a divorce.  The financial settlement is achieved quickly and without protracted and expensive legal proceedings”

“The Madonna/Ritchie divorce was short but the starting point will still be an equal division of what’s been generated financially during the marriage.    Ritchie’s strongest argument for getting more than 50% of what’s built up during their marriage is Madonna’s ability future earning capacity which dwarf’s his.  Madonna, however, will argue that her professional skills were already established before the marriage so Ritchie shouldn’t benefit from that.  The needs of the parties always come first but in celebrity cases that’s never an issue”.

Lawyers say that with one in three marriages ending in divorce, people are becoming more realistic about their relationship's future prospects. And the credit crunch has merely made savvy couples more aware of the need to keep their assets out of the hands of any potential gold-diggers. The Seddons survey of 3,000 respondents found that:

• 35 per cent of men would now consider a pre-nup before walking down the aisle compared to 28 per cent of women.

• 65 per cent people believed it was unromantic to agree on a splitting of assets even before vows were exchanged.

• 31 per cent of people said they believed a pre-nup would jinx their marriage.

Yet law firm Seddons said they had seen a 50 per cent increase in enquiries in the last six months as people bid to ensure that stocks, shares, cash and property are out of harm's way.

The pre-nup flood gates opened in 2000 when the Courts drastically changed the way assets are divided after a long marriage.  Then in the landmark cases of Miller in 2006, the House of Lords awarded Melissa Miller a £5million settlement after her three-year, childless marriage to multimillionaire fund manager, Alan Miller, collapsed. Earlier this year Sir Paul McCartney was ordered to pay £24.3 million to Heather Mills and divorce experts claimed he could have got away with paying out substantially less if he had a pre-nup. Phil Collins suffered a similar fate when he paid his ex-wife - Orianne Cevey - £25million.

Deborah Jeff added: ''A prenuptial agreement is always sensible for those contemplating marriage, not just the super-wealthy. Both parties should seek independent legal and perhaps accountancy advice, make full disclosure of their financial circumstances and not enter an agreement fewer than 20 days before their marriage. 'This is the best protection available for individuals at present, and the general view of most clients enquiring about prenups is that they'd much rather have an insurance policy that might protect them in future rather than no insurance policy at all. A pre-nup could save the heavy emotional toll and the significant costs of an unexpected divorce”.