Our Services
Southpac Trust was established in the Cook Islands in 1982 and developed the offshore legislation and asset protection features we see today in collaboration with industry-leading attorneys. For over four decades, our company has been servicing high-net-worth individuals and their families, offering access to a wide range of global products, services, and opportunities aimed at preserving their wealth and legacies.
More detailed information on our Cook Islands products is available here.
Through the Southpac Group framework we ensure that our clients receive the highest levels of expertise by leveraging our global network of trusted professionals with decades of shared experience. The following services enable us to cater to the needs of sophisticated investors and protect and nurture everything our clients have diligently accumulated throughout their lives.
Trustee and Fiduciary Services
Our core business for more than 30 years has been to provide trustee services to thousands of clients, through our Cook Islands trustee company.
As a trusted wealth planning partner, we appreciate the importance to clients of having a professional, suitably qualified, trustworthy and easily contactable trustee looking after their assets. We work hand in hand with qualified professionals to ensure that a Southpac trustee is a proactive trustee which fully understands how to fulfil its fiduciary responsibilities.
We have applied our longstanding fiduciary expertise as a trustee to other areas and are able to offer corporate protector, manager, secretary and foundation council member services from the Cook Islands.
Trustee and fiduciary services in Nevis and New Zealand are also available through Southpac companies in those jurisdictions.
Offshore Trusts
Since 1984, the Cook Islands has set the gold standard for asset protection trust laws.
‘Day 1 Protection’ is available for assets settled into a trust before a creditor’s cause of action accrues, with a strict 1–2 year statute of limitations applying to other trust assets. Neither foreign judgments nor forced heirship claims are recognised, and robust privacy laws preserve the confidentiality of trust settlors and beneficiaries. The Cook Islands is a particularly attractive jurisdiction for clients wishing to protect their assets from future potential creditors or frivolous lawsuits, or to exercise testamentary freedom which is not allowed in their home country.
The Cook Islands also offers international relationship property trusts. The IRPT is a trust product unique to the Cook Islands which was introduced in 2021. It allows settlors in a relationship who contribute property to a trust to ensure that trust assets continue to be retained and managed for the benefit of trust beneficiaries if the settlors separate.
More information on Cook Islands trusts and the legislation which governs them is available here.
Offshore trusts are also available through Southpac’s Nevis and New Zealand companies.
LLCs, IBCs and Foundations
Southpac Trust operates as a registered agent in the Cook Islands and can register limited liability companies, international companies and foundations for clients.
Cook Islands LLC laws are based closely on those of Nevis and offer flexibility and ease of use combined with outstanding creditor protection.
LLCs are frequently employed as part of a wider trust structure by clients wishing to maintain some level of control and involvement in the management of the trust fund. We are able to offer jurisdictional diversity within client structures by offering Nevis and New Zealand as additional trust jurisdictions.
For clients from jurisdictions unfamiliar with the LLC concept, Cook Islands international companies provide an alternative option in a more traditional corporate format. They can also be used as private trustee companies for clients wishing to exercise Cook Islands trustee functions on their own account or through a third party.
Cook Islands foundations are attractive products for those wishing to combine the asset protection features of a trust with a more streamlined civil law concept that imposes fewer fiduciary responsibilities.
A Cook Islands LLC or IC can be used in connection with yacht registration in the Cook Islands.
Companies and foundations are also available from Southpac’s Nevis company.
Investment and Banking Services
Southpac can set up investment portfolios in jurisdictions outside of your home country, whether on a standalone basis or as part of a trust/company structure.
We work with leading boutique investment advisors and private banks throughout the world to provide tailored investment solutions for our clients. The firms we use have been in business for decades and we have trusted relationships with them. The banks we use are typically non-lending and as a result have very secure balance sheets. We have relationships with banks in multiple jurisdictions, including Switzerland, the Cook Islands, Liechtenstein, Austria, Nevis, Belize and the USA. We are always looking for additional custodial partners who meet our stringent criteria.
Through understanding our clients’ circumstances and requirements we can introduce them to investment and custodial solutions to meet these needs.
We continually monitor investment portfolios to ensure that they perform above benchmark and meet clients’ investment objectives.
Accounting Services
Accounting across time zones and jurisdictions can make working in global markets a challenge. Outsourcing this responsibility to experienced professionals relieves that pressure and frees up your time to do the business that counts.
Southpac provides accounting solutions to save you time. We can prepare management accounts, periodic financial statements and special purpose reports in line with generally accepted accounting principles and international accounting standards.