Karen Mackay, chief executive of National Resolution which is bringing the American concept of collaborative law into divorce settlements for couples who want to avoid bitter and expensive legal battles, also believes pre-nuptial agreements can have a useful role. "Increasingly, they are being taken into account, when a couple's circumstances haven't changed radically since their marriage and if there are no children involved," she says. "For people with substantial assets, pre-nuptial agreements should be seen as a sensible piece of financial planning." In the case of the McCartney marriage, Ms Mackay says a pre-nuptial agreement could have been particularly helpful for Heather, "because it would clearly have helped her to rebut suggestions she was a gold digger which she clearly found painful." Karen Mackay says the Resolution style of divorce settlement, agreed when each partner sits around the table with their solicitor and calls on any experts and advisers like pension specialists or child psychiatrists, is likely to cost upwards of £10,000-£15,000 when substantial assets are involved. Says Ms Mackay: "At the beginning of the Resolution process, you agree to negotiate everything face to face. When we launched the service in Surrey, we found that couples pursuing their case to a full court hearing could easily spend £50,000-£100,000, and the collaborative process should cut that by a minimum 20%, possibly by much more." Resolution has already trained 600 solicitors in collaborative law to provide the more conciliatory method of divorce already available in England and Wales, but not yet in Scotland and Ireland. How useful are financial advisers likely to be in handling a divorce? Paul Churchouse says they usually help only if, like him, they hold the P60 specialist qualification denoting pension expertise. It is even better if they have passed two other key pension exams - K10 and K20. Says Mr Churchouse: "If couples can still communicate in a reasonably civilised fashion, it is far better to sit down with solicitors trained in mediation for a couple of meetings, than to get their solicitor firing off 20 angry letters". Financial advisers can help plan for the worst * FINANCIAL advisers able to advise in planning a divorce settlement are listed by IFA Promotion, which represents independent financial advisers. Consumer Hotline is 0800 085 3250 * Rowe Cohen (0161 830 4600) Churchouse Financial Planning, Guildford (01483 578 800 and online at www. churchouse.com); Irwin Mitchell national enquiry line (0870 1500 100). * National Resolution (01689 820 272 and www.resolution. org.uk); details of new divorce mediation system available online at www.collabfamily.co. uk and www.collaborative familylawyers.co.uk) | 
