(REFERENCE · COOK ISLANDS TRUST · 6 MIN READ)

Setting up a Cook Islands trust

Eight decisions and documents, and the order they have to be tackled in. We cover what belongs in the deed, which choices are yours to make rather than defaults you inherit, and the missteps that trip up most first-time settlors and come back to bite them.

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Written and reviewed by Connor SteensJohn Evans

Updated 17 August 2026

Connor Steens

BBUS

Founder & Business Development Director

Sydney, Australia Profile ↗ LinkedIn ↗

John Evans

Forbes Business Council

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Rarotonga, Cook Islands Profile ↗ LinkedIn ↗

Asia PacificCook Islands

The sequence

The steps of formation are locked into a set order. You cannot sign the deed until a trustee has been selected, since the deed names that trustee. Nothing can be registered until it has been executed, and no banking is possible until the trust actually exists.

Formation stages in order
Stage	What happens	Who does it
Trustee selection	Select a licensed trustee company based in the Cook Islands	Settlor, with coordination
Trustee onboarding	Review of due diligence, source of wealth and solvency	Trustee
Deed drafting	A trust deed drafted to fit your particular situation	Trustee counsel
Ancillary documents	Solvency affidavit, letter of wishes, and appointment of a protector	Settlor and advisers
Execution	Deed signed and witnessed	All parties
Registration	The trust is entered on the Cook Islands registry	Trustee
Funding	Assets transferred to the trust	Settlor and trustee
Banking	Bank accounts set up for the trust or its underlying company	Trustee

What you decide

Who serves as trustee, who is appointed protector, how the beneficiary class is drawn, which powers you reserve, and how the deed treats duress and any creditor you already know about. Once the deed is executed, most of those choices can only be undone through a deed of amendment.

What the trustee decides

Whether the settlement is accepted, which assets are taken on and which are turned away, and the way the deed gets registered. Where a client's file is clean and their assets liquid, the whole thing wraps up in weeks; where the paper trail has holes, progress slows to however fast those holes can be explained.

In this section

Trust deed — what the deed is required to include and what it may not
Letter of wishes — guidance offered to the trustee that is not binding
Duress clause — how the deed reacts when a repatriation order is issued
Jones clause — identifying a known creditor within the deed
Reserved powers — which powers you may retain and which you ought not to
Beneficiary class — who is eligible to benefit and how that class is drawn up
Funding — moving assets into the trust
Registration — what registration achieves and what it leaves undone

Speak to a specialistPrepared to begin, or would you rather understand it first?A private call walking through what the process looks like given your situation.Book a consultation Cook Islands Trust formation starting at $10,000, with first-year trustee costs included.

(Review & sourcing)

Written by

Connor Steens

BBus, business development

Reviewed by

John Evans

20+ years, offshore structuring

Last updated

1 August 2026

General information

Sourced from

Primary statute

ITA 1984 and trustee practice

01International Trusts Act 1984 — consolidated text.

02Trustee Companies Act 2014 — licensing requirements.

03Financial Supervisory Commission — trustee licensing authority.

(COMMON QUESTIONS)

Common questions about establishing a Cook Islands trust

Picking a licensed trustee company, since the deed names the trustee and it is their onboarding that sets the pace of the whole timeline.

Who serves as trustee, who is named protector, how the beneficiary class is defined, which powers are reserved, and what the deed provides regarding duress and any creditor already known.

At the point of registration, not execution. A trust that has been executed but not yet registered gains none of the Act's limitation periods, burden of proof, or refusal to recognise foreign judgments.

Yes. There is no requirement to fund it all in one go.

Holding on to too much control. A court can scrutinise each reserved power as a point of control.

Anywhere from three to eight weeks between the first conversation and a funded trust.

Drafting is done by the trustee's counsel. You are free to review it and suggest amendments, but the trustee will not take on an instrument it had no hand in reviewing.

At the heart of it sit three documents: the trust deed, a solvency affidavit, and the letter of wishes.