The Cook Islands occupies an unusual place in global financial services. From a small South Pacific economy, centred largely around Rarotonga, the country has built an international wealth management industry that has operated for more than four decades. Ten licensed trustee companies sit at the centre of the sector, supported by banking, legal, accounting, insurance and regulatory services.
For a country of this size, the industry has real economic weight. Cook Islands Finance reported that financial services contributed NZ$48.2 million, or 8.54% of real GDP, in FY2024/25. Offshore trust companies and Capital Security Bank generated NZ$29.9 million in gross revenue during the 2024 calendar year, while taxes and Financial Supervisory Commission fees generated NZ$8.4 million in direct government revenue.
The international reputation of the Cook Islands still comes mainly from the Cook Islands Trust. That makes sense. The International Trusts Act dates to 1984, and the country has spent decades developing expertise in asset protection and cross-border wealth planning. The licensed Cook Islands trust companies have accumulated a depth of practical knowledge that is difficult to replicate in a newer financial centre.
The industry now has an opportunity to extend that reputation into a broader conversation about Cook Islands financial services. Trusts will remain important, but the jurisdiction also has LLCs, international companies, foundations and a wider professional services sector. The question is how the Cook Islands can give those products greater international exposure without losing the specialist character that made the industry successful in the first place.
My Connection to the Industry
My connection with the Cook Islands financial services industry started long before Wealth Web.
I was raised in the Cook Islands and moved to New Zealand when I reached high school age. I later worked in and around trustee companies founding Wealth Web to bridge the gap we’re about to discuss. That background gave me an early view of an industry that can look quite different from the outside.
The Cook Islands is a small professional community. Firms compete for clients, advisers, staff and international relationships, but they also share an interest in the reputation of the jurisdiction. A successful Cook Islands financial services industry benefits more than one trustee company. It supports employment, professional development, government revenue and the country’s position in international finance.
There is also a large amount of knowledge concentrated among people who have worked in the industry for decades. Experienced practitioners have dealt with changing (and building) legislation, litigation, succession, banking issues, compliance changes and complex international family structures. Younger professionals entering the sector learn from people who have spent much of their careers working with these arrangements.
Founding Wealth Web gave me a wider reference point. We look at offshore trusts, offshore companies, banking relationships and service providers across several jurisdictions. That exposure reinforces how difficult it is for any one person to know the whole international structuring market. I confess, it’s still difficult to wrap my head around the intricacies of all of the services we offer, it’s why we use specialists in each jurisdiction. I am a master of none that relies on my masters of one around the world.
Asset protection is the part I know best because of my long exposure to the Cook Islands. Move beyond that field and the market becomes much wider. A Nevis LLC serves its own market. BVI companies have become standard tools for many international advisers. Cayman has built a large institutional ecosystem around investment funds and corporate structures. Each jurisdiction developed around different clients, advisers and commercial uses.
Looking at those markets also raises a fair question about the Cook Islands: why does a jurisdiction with more than 40 years of financial services experience register so many fewer companies than centres such as BVI and Cayman?
Why BVI and Cayman Operate at a Different Scale
The difference in registration numbers is substantial.
The British Virgin Islands had more than 362,000 active business companies at the end of the first quarter of 2026, with more than 7,600 new companies incorporated during that quarter. Cayman reported 123,530 active companies at the end of 2025 and more than 13,000 new company registrations during the year.
The Cook Islands operates at a much smaller scale. New LLC registrations reached 331 in FY2024/25, up from 175 the previous year. That growth is encouraging, but the total remains modest beside the established Caribbean centres.
Those figures do not provide a perfect comparison. A BVI business company, Cayman company and Cook Islands LLC can serve different purposes, and the jurisdictions report their statistics differently. The numbers still tell us something about international adoption.
BVI and Cayman have spent decades building familiarity across large professional networks. Lawyers, accountants, corporate service providers, banks and investment managers encounter their structures as part of routine international work. That exposure makes the next incorporation easier.
Consider an adviser who has used BVI companies for 15 years. They know which provider to contact, what due diligence the provider will request, what the corporate documents will look like and how annual administration works. Their compliance team knows the jurisdiction and their banking contacts have probably dealt with BVI companies before. A conversation with a lawyer friend here in Sydney confirms this, his time spent in a UK private equity firm meant he grew rapid familiarity with the structures and processes of registered agents in neighbouring Jersey and Guernsey, Isle of Man and more. Familiarity served him best, rather than some far flung expedition to the deep South Pacific.
A Cook Islands LLC introduces a new process. An adviser may need to learn the legislation, build a relationship with a Cook Islands provider and explain the jurisdiction to a client who has never used it. None of those obstacles reflect a weakness in the Cook Islands product. They reflect the commercial value of familiarity.
Advisers carry responsibility for the structures they recommend, so they tend to return to jurisdictions they understand. The Cook Islands can compete by making the first experience with the jurisdiction easier and giving advisers enough information to compare it confidently with structures they already know.
Cayman shows the same effect from another angle. Its large investment funds industry produces repeated interaction with Cayman entities. Fund managers, administrators, lawyers, auditors and investors encounter the jurisdiction through their normal work. By the time someone needs another Cayman company or partnership, the jurisdiction already sits inside their professional network.
The Cook Islands grew through a more specialised route. Its reputation developed around private wealth and asset protection, with the United States becoming its largest source market. Cook Islands Finance reports that around 85% of licensed trustee company revenue comes from U.S. clients.
That concentration reflects decades of success in one area. It also gives the industry a clear opportunity to broaden its international reach. The big bold question is how?
Asset Protection Gives the Cook Islands a Strong Starting Point
The Cook Islands should continue to promote asset protection. Few financial centres have built the same level of recognition in that field, and the Cook Islands Trust remains the jurisdiction’s best-known international product.
The opportunity lies in using that recognition to introduce advisers to the rest of the market.
A client researching asset protection may begin with a trust and then learn about the role of a Cook Islands LLC underneath it. Another client may need a company without a trust. Others may compare the Cook Islands with a Nevis LLC, another offshore company or a completely different jurisdiction. Alternatively, we could reverse that, a client searching for a BVI company might decide they need some more protection and choose to put the BVI company under a Cook Islands Trust. Wealth Web has helped bridge that connection for a number of clients so far.
The Cook Islands LLC deserves more attention in the wider market. Registrations rose from 93 in FY2022/23 to 175 in FY2023/24 and 331 in FY2024/25. Cook Islands Finance reported further growth in LLC registrations and renewals during 2025.
That trajectory suggests that more advisers are finding a use for the structure. The next challenge is increasing the number of advisers who know enough about the Cook Islands to consider it in the first place. Part of this is simply resourcing and its a big part of our affiliate program and the number of resources we have in development to help an adviser understand themselves and pass that knowledge on to a would be client.
This is also where comparison helps. An adviser looking through offshore company jurisdictions should be able to understand how the Cook Islands differs from Nevis, BVI, Cayman and other established centres. The Cook Islands does not need to win every comparison. It benefits from appearing in the comparison at all.
What Greater Competitiveness Could Look Like
The Cook Islands does not need to copy BVI or Cayman. Those jurisdictions developed around different industries, populations and international networks. A better goal would be to increase the number of professional advisers who understand Cook Islands structures and know when to use them.
Cook Islands Finance has already been putting more effort into international engagement with credit to CEO Tony Fe’ao with his background in marketing. Its FY2024/25 programme reached more than 1,800 delegates across five conferences and generated 966 contacts. The Authority has also identified Asia and the Middle East as markets for further diversification alongside the established U.S. client base.
That work creates awareness. The next step is turning awareness into the key driver I mentioned previously, familiarity.
An adviser considering their first Cook Islands LLC should be able to find clear information on formation, due diligence, annual administration and the local provider market. They should understand how a Cook Islands company might interact with a trust, bank or investment account. They should also be able to compare the structure with jurisdictions they already use.
The Cook Islands already has the technical knowledge required to explain these issues. Much of it sits within the trustee companies, legal profession, regulator and wider industry. Making more of that knowledge accessible internationally would lower the barrier for advisers approaching the jurisdiction for the first time.
More regular market information could help as well. Cook Islands Finance now publishes annual reports and industry updates showing strong growth in trusts and LLCs. The first quarter of 2026 recorded 1,023 registrations and renewals, the highest quarterly figure in the dataset available to Cook Islands Finance since 2019.
BVI publishes quarterly statistical bulletins, while Cayman maintains current company statistics through its General Registry. The Cook Islands operates on a different scale, but advisers still benefit from current formation numbers and historical trends. Consistent public information makes the development of the market easier to understand.
None of this requires a change in the character of the industry. The Cook Islands can remain a specialist financial centre while reaching a wider group of advisers.
Global Recognition Beyond the Traditional Market
The United States will remain important to Cook Islands financial services. The relationships built with American asset protection lawyers and private client advisers over several decades form a major part of the industry’s international position.
Greater geographic diversity would add another layer to that base.
Asia presents an obvious area of interest because of the Cook Islands’ position in the Pacific and the continued growth of private wealth across markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong. The Middle East has also developed into a major centre for family offices, private wealth advisers and international structuring.
These markets already have established jurisdictions and professional habits, so entering them takes time. The same familiarity problem applies. Advisers in Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong or London may have years of experience with other financial centres and little reason to change a structure that already works for them.
The Cook Islands can still earn a place in those conversations. Clear comparative information, strong local providers and consistent international engagement give advisers a reason to learn more when a client presents the right circumstances.
That kind of growth would complement the existing U.S. asset protection market rather than replace it.
Where Wealth Web Can Contribute
Wealth Web sits in an interesting position because our readers do not all arrive looking specifically for the Cook Islands.
Someone may begin by researching offshore companies, an offshore trust or offshore banking. They may be comparing a Nevis LLC with other structures, or trying to understand which jurisdiction fits a particular objective.
That gives us an opportunity to put Cook Islands structures in front of people who may never have considered them.
The aim should not be to tell readers that the Cook Islands is the answer to every planning problem. Good international structuring does not work that way. The useful approach is to explain where the Cook Islands fits, how its structures operate and how they compare with alternatives.
That is also where my own experience is useful without needing to make this a personal argument. I grew up around the Cook Islands industry, have worked within it and continue to have professional involvement through Southpac. Wealth Web has since exposed me to a much wider range of structures and jurisdictions.
The combination gives me respect for what the Cook Islands has built and a better understanding of the competition for an adviser’s attention.
A Realistic Path to Growth
The Cook Islands financial services industry has good reasons to feel confident about its position. It has more than four decades of experience, established providers, recognised asset protection expertise and recent growth in registrations.
Its next stage will probably come from several smaller gains rather than one major change.
More advisers need to encounter Cook Islands structures during their wider research. More advisers need to complete a first Cook Islands transaction and become comfortable with the process. More international markets need exposure to the jurisdiction, and the industry needs to keep explaining its broader offering beyond the Cook Islands Trust.
The current growth in LLC registrations shows that the market can expand. The challenge is turning that momentum into a deeper international network around the jurisdiction.
What exactly produces that next stage is harder to answer. International financial centres develop through legislation, proximity, relationships, timing, reputation and thousands of individual adviser decisions. No one controls all of those factors.
The Cook Islands already has the hardest part: an established industry with experienced people and a recognised area of expertise. The opportunity now is to make more of the international market familiar with what sits beyond that reputation.
Wealth Web wants to contribute to that process by putting the Cook Islands into the same research and comparisons as the larger offshore centres. If more advisers understand the jurisdiction well enough to consider it when the right client comes along, that alone would represent meaningful progress.
