The rise of the prenup – and why so many of us are now getting one
The number of couples deciding to get a prenup is increasing, with one law firm telling Money it has seen requests double in the last year.
It is estimated that more than 20% of all married couples in the country have signed one of these agreements.
So, what are they, and why are so many of us opting for one? The Money team took a look…
A quick rundown of what a prenup is
A prenup is a legal arrangement made by a couple before they marry or enter a civil partnership, which sets out plans for how their assets should be divided if they divorce or have their civil partnership dissolved.
They are not legally binding, but thanks to a landmark ruling in 2010, courts are expected to uphold prenups that have been entered into freely.
However, courts are still able to make decisions on a case-by-case basis, meaning prenups that appear to have been entered under pressure or written up particularly unfairly might not be given as much weight.
Four reasons why they have become more popular
The landmark ruling
Prenups used to be associated with the ultra wealthy and famous, but after the Radmacher v Granatino ruling, people became more aware of them, Charlotte Lanning from Edward’s Family Law told Money.
After that decision, prenups agreed by celebrity couples made headlines across the country, making them appear “glitzy” and desirable, she said.
“When I was first starting out, I would do prenups on the odd occasion, whereas now we always have a couple on the go each,” the associate solicitor said.
Charlotte Lanning
Getting married later
While the ruling was a factor, Lanning thinks the more recent increase in prenups has been driven by changes in society. People are getting married later and are less worried about looking unromantic.
“The fact that people are getting married a lot later in life… means there is more to argue over,” Lanning said, explaining that the older people are, the more likely they are to own businesses, properties or other assets.
The bank of mum and dad
A lot of her clients were also relying more on the “bank of mum and dad” to fund big purchases, such as the deposit on a first home.
Lanning said this made wealth inequities more obvious, putting prenups at the “forefront of people’s minds” before they get married.
Changing attitudes
The Marriage Foundation thinktank has been looking at prenups for years, and its founder and former judge Sir Paul Coleridge told Money that changing attitudes were a big driver in the uptick.
“The old Victorian view was that it was wrong to have people talking about what should happen when a marriage broke down when the clear intention was to stay married for life,” he said.
“I’m a convert. I felt quite strongly that it was wrong to start discussing divorce before marriage, but I have completely changed my mind.
“People do quite often want to have a discussion about what should happen in the worst case.”
Sir Paul Coleridge
He explained that despite the stereotype of a rich man paying off a younger, poorer wife, that was no longer the case either.
“You find people getting married now are very established financially and have made a great deal of money on their own, and this is men and women,” he said.
“It’s certainly not only applicable to men paying women. Nowadays, it’s very frequent to be the other way around.”
Who is signing them?
Lanning said a typical client was often a high net worth individual, but it was becoming more common for young people who are in line to receive a large inheritance to get a prenup.
“A lot of the ones I have done recently have been quite interesting because it is more to do with future inheritance,” she said.
“One of the parties that is getting married won’t necessarily have the money yet, but the prenup is to make sure that if they do receive it during the marriage, that it is protected.”
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She explained that parents can be the driving force of these agreements, with many wanting to make sure their child keeps hold of their inheritance.
Then there are divorcees. Lanning said people who used her firm for their divorce proceedings will return when they’re considering getting married for a second time.
“We see it often with second marriages, particularly if the parties have children from a previous marriage or relationship. Obviously, the older you are, the more money you’ve got because you’ve had longer to build it up.”
Sir Paul stressed that prenups were not necessary for every couple, so people should consider them carefully before signing one.
Pic: iStock
What do they include?
A prenup can cover a range of topics, with Sir Paul saying he has seen some in the US that set out bizarre requirements such as the number of times a couple must have sex.
Typically, it will cover property, savings, inheritance, stocks and shares, income, business interests, pension pots, and premium bonds.
In the UK, a prenup cannot include child custody arrangements, personal matters, illegal activities, or lifestyle issues.
When writing up a prenup, Lanning said property was the most common point of contention.
“It might specify that a home becomes joint property or it will stay separate,” she said.
“When there’s not a lot of money involved, the court will normally be looking at what the weaker financial party needs in order to rehouse.
“You will quite often have a clause in there that says after a certain number of years, you can have a specific amount to rehouse, or you can have a property in a certain area, with a set number of bedrooms.
“It just provides a bit of structure to try to temper down people’s needs,” she explained.
“There is a broad spectrum of what you can assert. The whole point of it is to try to stop arguments later down the line.”
How long do they take and how much do they cost?
The simple answer to both questions is that it completely depends on how complex the agreement is.
Lanning said the general rule is that a prenup should be signed 28 days before a couple gets married.
She said it’s “absolutely great” if people contact a solicitor about a prenup around six months before their wedding.
“That way, you can get the advice on what they do, what the process is, and then a lot of couples discuss it among themselves to decide what they want to achieve. Then they come with their practical realities, and we basically make it legal,” she said.
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“Any earlier and you risk the financial disclosure then being out of date, which doesn’t help.”
Sir Paul said that when dealing with a high net worth family, the whole process could cost upwards of £10,000.
But in typical cases, people should be thinking “in terms of thousands” for the final cost.
How should you handle having the prenup conversation?
While people are less likely to find conversations around prenups uncomfortable nowadays, talking about money can still be difficult.
Amy Harris, legal director at advisory firm Brabners Personal, said having a chat about prenups tends to be easier when the issue is family money or inherited wealth.
“A prenup is sometimes a condition of them receiving any gifts or inheritance at all; it therefore comes across less personal between the couple themselves,” she said.
“We find that having full and frank financial discussions at the start of marriage can be enlightening and a good basis upon which to start their future together – with openness and transparency and a commitment to dealing with separation as amicably as possible.
“It is also important to remember that these agreements often work both ways in terms of any provisions that protect the prior assets of one party, which can also protect the prior assets of the other.”
Reports of a “board-level orchestrated coup” at the BBC are “complete nonsense”, non-executive director Sir Robbie Gibb has told MPs.
Sir Robbie, whose position on the BBC board has been challenged by critics in recent weeks, was among senior leaders, including the broadcaster’s chair, Samir Shah, to face questions from the Culture, Media and Sport committee about the current crisis.
The hearing took place in the wake of the fallout over the edit of a speech by US President Donald Trump, which prompted the resignation of the corporation’s director-general and the chief executive of BBC News, and the threat of a lawsuit from the US president.
Former BBC editorial adviser Michael Prescott wrote the memo that was leaked. Pic: PA
Former editorial adviser Michael Prescott, whose leaked memo sparked the recent chain of events, also answered questions from MPs – telling the hearing he felt he kept seeing “incipient problems” that were not being tackled.
He also said Mr Trump’s reputation had “probably not” been tarnished by the Panorama edit.
During his own questioning, Sir Robbie addressed concerns of potential political bias – he left BBC News in 2017 to become then prime minister Theresa May’s director of communications, a post he held until 2019, and was appointed to the BBC board in 2021 by Boris Johnson.
BBC board member Sir Robbie Gibb appearing before the Culture, Media and Sport committee. Pic: PA
“I know it’s hard to marry the fact that I spent two years as director of communications for the government… and my genuine passion for impartiality,” he said.
“I want to hear the full range of views… I don’t want the BBC to be partisan or favour any particular way.”
Asked about reports and speculation that there has been a “board-level orchestrated coup”, Sir Robbie responded: “It’s up there as one of the most ridiculous charges… People had to find some angle.
“It’s complete nonsense. It’s also deeply offensive to fellow board members… people of great standing in different fields.”
He said his political work has been “weaponised” – and that it was hard as a non-executive member of the BBC to respond to criticism.
‘We should have made the decision earlier’
BBC chair Samir Shah also answered questions. Pic: PA
Mr Shah admitted the BBC was too slow in responding to the issue of the Panorama edit of Mr Trump, which had been flagged long before the leaked memo.
“Looking back, I think we should have made the decision earlier,” he said. “I think in May, as it happens.
“I think there is an issue about how quickly we respond, the speed of our response. Why do we not do it quickly enough? Why do we take so much time? And this was another illustration of that.”
Following reports of the leaked memo, it took nearly a week for the BBC to issue an apology.
Mr Shah told the committee he did not think Mr Davie needed to resign over the issue and that he “spent a great deal of time” trying to stop him from doing so.
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Asked about his own position, Mr Shah said his job now is to “steady the ship”, and that he is not someone “who walks away from a problem”.
A job advert for the BBC director-general role has since gone live on the corporation’s careers website.
Mr Shah told the hearing his view is that the role is “too big” for one person and that he is “inclined” to restructure roles at the top.
He says he believes there should also be a deputy director-general who is “laser-focused on journalism”, which is “the most important thing and our greatest vulnerability”.
Earlier in the hearing, Mr Prescott gave evidence alongside another former BBC editorial adviser, Caroline Daniel.
He told the CMS committee that there are “issues of denial” at the BBC and said “the management did not accept there was a problem” with the Panorama episode.
Mr Prescott’s memo highlighted concerns about the way clips of Mr Trump’s speech on January 6 2021 were spliced together so it appeared he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”.
‘I can’t think of anything I agree with Trump on’
Mr Trump has said he is going to pursue a lawsuit of between $1bn and $5bn against the broadcaster, despite receiving an official public apology.
Asked if the documentary had harmed Mr Trump’s image, Mr Prescott responded: “I should probably restrain myself a little bit, given that there is a potential legal action.
“All I could say is, I can’t think of anything I agree with Donald Trump on.”
He was later pushed on the subject, and asked again if he agreed that the programme tarnished the president’s reputation, to which he then replied: “Probably not.”
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Why are people calling for Sir Robbie Gibb to go?
Mr Prescott, a former journalist, also told the committee he did not know how his memo was leaked to the Daily Telegraph.
“At the most fundamental level, I wrote that memo, let me be clear, because I am a strong supporter of the BBC.
“The BBC employs talented professionals across all of its factual and non-factual programmes, and most people in this country, certainly myself included, might go as far as to say that they love the BBC.
He said he “never envisaged” the fallout that would occur. “I was hoping the concerns I had could, and would, be addressed privately in the first instance.”
Asked if he thinks the BBC is institutionally biased, he said: “No, I don’t.”
He said that “tonnes” of the BBC’s work is “world class” – but added that there is “real work that needs to be done” to deal with problems.
Mr Davie, he said, did a “first-rate job” as director-general but had a “blind spot” toward editorial failings.
Police have appealed for information after a man was charged with murdering two women and raping a third.
Simon Levy has been charged with murdering 53-year-old Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo who died on the Aylesbury Estate, south-east London, on 17 March, the Metropolitan Police said.
In September, Levy, of Beaufoy Road, Tottenham, north London, was charged with murdering 39-year-old Sheryl Wilkins who was found unresponsive in High Road, Tottenham, on 24 August.
He is also accused of grievous bodily harm with intent, non-fatal strangulation and two counts of rape against a third woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in Haringey, north London, on 21 January, police said.
The 40-year-old will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday charged with Ms Valencia-Trujillo’s murder.
Sheryl Wilkins was found unresponsive in High Road, Tottenham, on 24 August. Pic: Metropolitan Police
He is also due to appear at the Old Bailey on Wednesday for a plea and trial preparation hearing for the murder of Ms Wilkins.
Detectives believe there may be individuals who have information relevant to this investigation – or who are yet to report incidents which have directly impacted them – and are asking for people to come forward.
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