Metis Global

Background

Owned by Metis Global Group, a Hong Kong financial group that Dr German Cheung established in 2013, Metis Global (Cook Islands) Limited took up its licensed-trustee registration in 2016, stepping into the space vacated after HSBC Trustee (Cook Islands) Limited pulled out of the jurisdiction in 2015. Separately regulated arms of the group run in Hong Kong and Singapore as well. The firm appears on the Cook Islands Finance register of trustee companies holding a licence, overseen by the Financial Supervisory Commission under the Trustee Companies Act 2014.

What distinguishes this firm

Because Metis offers a way in through either Hong Kong or Singapore while the Cook Islands entity acts as the licensed trustee itself, settlors who already bank, take advice from, or have family connections in those cities can often onboard more easily with a trustee already regulated and active there. For clients oriented toward Asia, that is a real and concrete benefit.

Weighing longevity against regional presence

Compared with houses like Southpac or Portcullis, whose roots reach into the 1980s, Metis is the newer arrival. The reason a firm's age counts is that trustees carrying decades-long records have steered trusts through genuine creditor pressure and documented court battles. Still, no single measure decides the matter on its own, and a settlor with deep Asian ties might sensibly value a regional footprint above a longer history.

What to verify before instructing

Confirm current licensing on the government register, request the fee schedule in writing instead of settling for a spoken figure, and check the firm's willingness to hold anything out of the ordinary in your portfolio before you file an application. Put to them the seven questions listed under choosing a trustee.

Pairing this profile with your own wider research

Drawing on information in the public domain, this page sets out where Metis Global broadly sits within the Cook Islands trustee market. The firm registered in 2016 and maintains separately regulated arms in Hong Kong and Singapore. Treat all of this as a point of departure rather than the whole story.

The pool of Cook Islands trustees is small, and those who practise there routinely build up an understanding of each firm that no public source can supply. Before you commit to any trustee, it pays to talk with advisers who have actually placed clients with the firm and can describe how it conducts itself in reality, not merely the image it puts forward.

The FSC register at fsc.gov.ck is the definitive place to check present licensing standing, whether a firm is designated a managed trustee, and any regulatory measures taken against it. Going straight to it costs only a few minutes and verifies facts that a trustee's own promotional material is under no duty to spell out.

Questions specific to this firm

On top of the seven standard questions laid out in choosing a trustee, each discussion with a trustee ought to bring in questions tailored to whatever that firm's public profile stresses or leaves vague. When a firm has a strong documented record, the pointed question is whether the people who built that record are still on hand and running trusts. When little public information exists, the pointed question is what stands in for the missing public record when you try to judge how the firm actually behaves when tested. And for a managed trustee company, the pointed question is precisely who makes the fiduciary calls on your trust and under what governance arrangement.

What the multi-jurisdictional setup means in day-to-day practice

Three licensed entities make up Metis Global Group: Metis Global (Cook Islands) Limited serving as the Cook Islands trustee; Metis Global Limited in Hong Kong, operating under Hong Kong's Trustee Ordinance and a Trust or Company Service Provider licence; and Metis Global (Singapore) Pte. Limited, regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. A settlor holding banking or advisory ties in either Asian centre can reach the group through those existing connections, while the Cook Islands entity remains the actual licensed trustee no matter where the introduction originated.

The tangible upside is a smoother onboarding. Where a settlor already deals with the Hong Kong or Singapore entity, or can establish that link through a bank or adviser they already use, there is no need to begin KYC from a blank page. Due diligence run through one group entity can feed into the Cook Islands trustee's own review, shortening the time to completion.

Ask outright how the three entities coordinate their decisions, and in particular which office would actually exercise trustee discretion over your specific trust if a duress event or a distribution request came up. The multi-jurisdictional arrangement is an access benefit. The trustee is the Cook Islands entity, and pinning down exactly who inside it makes the relevant fiduciary decisions is the governance question that matters most.

This page outlines where the firm generally stands in the market, drawing on public information. It carries no sponsorship from or affiliation with the firm, and you should confirm current services with them directly.