¶ 401
Overview
Scope of the chapter. Every international trust, limited liability company and foundation in the Cook Islands is formed and administered through a licensed trustee company, registered with a Registrar who sits inside the Financial Supervisory Commission, and supervised by that Commission and by the Financial Intelligence Unit, which forms an independent division of it. This chapter examines those institutions. It describes the Commission's establishment, governance and powers under the Financial Supervisory Commission Act 2003; the licensing and supervision of trustee companies under the Trustee Companies Act 2014 and the regulations made under it; the Registrar and the International Registry; and, in outline, the anti-money-laundering regime administered by the Financial Intelligence Unit under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2017. It closes with the questions a planner should ask before entrusting a client's structure to a particular trustee company. The substantive rules on registration of each type of entity are examined in the chapters on each statute (see infra chs. 5, 12, 18), and the customer due diligence and beneficial ownership obligations are examined in chapter 28 (see infra ch. 28).
Why regulation matters to the planner. A planner who chooses Cook Islands law for a client chooses the statutes examined in the later chapters. The planner also chooses a trustee company, and through it a regulator. The trustee company holds the trust assets or controls the companies that hold them; it signs the registration filings on which the protection of the International Trusts Act depends; it keeps the records that a court or a foreign authority may later seek; and it decides, within the terms of the trust deed, whether to resist a foreign order. The Commission licenses the trustee company, approves its directors and controlling shareholders, may direct it, may name it in a public statement, may apply to the High Court to put a receiver or manager into its business, and may petition to wind it up. Those powers protect clients. They also mean that the regulator can reach into the administration of a client's structure. A planner should understand both aspects.
The statutes. Four Acts carry most of the regulatory law examined in this chapter:
- the Financial Supervisory Commission Act 2003 (No. 11), which established the Commission and sets out its duties, functions, powers and accountability;
- the Trustee Companies Act 2014 (No. 4), which defines trustee company business, restricts it to licensed companies, and gives the Commission and the High Court powers over licensed companies and their controllers;
- the Trustee Companies Regulations 2014 and the Trustee Companies (Due Diligence) Regulations 1996, which impose client-money, audit, capital, insurance and settlor due diligence requirements; and
- the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2017 and the Financial Intelligence Unit Act 2015, which impose anti-money-laundering obligations on reporting institutions, including trustee companies, and establish the Financial Intelligence Unit.
The Registrar's functions arise under each of the entity statutes: the International Companies Act 1981–82, the International Trusts Act 1984, the International Partnership Act 1984, the Limited Liability Companies Act 2008, the Foundations Act 2012 and the International Relationship Property Trusts Act 2021.
The trustee company as gatekeeper. The Cook Islands regime places the trustee company between the client and the State. Only a licensed trustee company may register an international entity on the Registry, and before it does so it must complete its customer due diligence on the client. Fin. Supervisory Comm'n (Cook Is.), Registry (visited Nov. 7, 2026). The trustee company is the resident secretary of an international company, the registered agent of an LLC and of a foundation, and the resident trustee of an international trust. The Registrar deals with the trustee company and with no one else, and will tell an inquirer only the name, number, date of registration, registered office and administering trustee company of an entity. The supervision of the trustee companies is therefore the means by which the Cook Islands supervises the whole of its international sector, and the quality of a client's trustee company is the most important practical variable in a Cook Islands structure.
Plan of the chapter. Paragraph 410 describes the Commission's history, establishment and governance, and ¶ 420 its duties, functions and powers, including its power to obtain information and to assist overseas regulators. Paragraphs 430 to 450 examine the Trustee Companies Act 2014: the definition of trustee company business and the licensing regime (¶ 430), the supervision of key persons and controllers and the Commission's directions, public statements and intervention powers (¶ 440), and the prudential rules, information and investigation powers, offences and rights of recourse to the High Court (¶ 450). Paragraph 460 examines the provisions of the Act that govern a trustee company acting as a trustee. Paragraph 470 describes the Registrar and the International Registry. Paragraph 480 outlines the anti-money-laundering regime and the international reviews of the Cook Islands. Paragraph 490 sets out the practitioner's considerations and a checklist.