Shopping for a Spouse

A new generation of pricey, upscale matchmakers caters to rich bachelors hoping to score the perfect spouse -- for a fee.

Spindel is one of the most expensive and prolific high-end matchmakers in the country. From her home base in New York City (she conducts match searches nationally), she works only with high-net-worth men who are willing to pay her $25,000 to $100,000 for her help in brokering a committed relationship with a beautiful, highly intelligent, successful, physically fit -- read "skinny" -- woman. And she gets a negotiable marriage bonus when her matches click for life. (Women pay only a small fee to be evaluated, or nothing if Spindel recruits them herself.)

Spindel's clients are some of the most eligible -- read "rich" -- bachelors in all the land, so you might wonder why they feel the need to drop huge coin for matchmaking services. But for men who are used to paying big bucks for the best restaurants, the best watches and the best sports cars, it makes sense to spend real money to get the best wife possible.

"The reason men hire me is that I'm not a dating service," says Spindel, owner of Janis Spindel Serious Matchmaking. "I get men married within a year to a very special woman they never would have met on their own."Anyone can get dates," she adds. "They come to me to meet three or four potential wives. They don't want to do the legwork. They want me to do the editing for them."

Spindel takes only male clients because she has found that female clients are too picky and often overestimate their "marketability" -- something she calls Magic Mirror Syndrome.

As for the men, the wealthier they are, the higher (and more unrealistic) their expectations for a match, especially with regard to a woman's physical attributes -- one of her clients has his heart set on meeting supermodel Elle McPherson. And higher expectations mean much bigger disappointments, so she must occasionally talk clients down to earth.