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The Cook Islands: An Offshore Financial Haven the US Can’t Crack
Few people would travel 6,283 miles for lunch, but that’s just what Cook Islands attorney and trust officer Puai, and his wife and staff manager, Tai, did recently.
We met in a private booth in the back of a restaurant in Delray Beach, Florida, along with Erika, Jeff and Josh from the Sovereign Society.
There were also a few interesting surprises.
At one point, Tai reached gingerly into her purse and extracted a jewelry case, from which emerged some of the Cook Islands’ most beautiful and valuable treasures – black pearls!
Visibly concerned, Tai then asked if it was “safe” to wear her $20,000 necklace in public the U.S.
Here, in Delray Beach, we told her: “Absolutely.”
However, that cautious approach spoke volumes about the Cook Islands’ safety factor, compared with the crime problem that has reached epidemic levels in many parts of the U.S.
And if you’re researching some of the esoteric locations for offshore asset protection, you will certainly come across the Cook Islands.
A Definitive Role in Offshore Financial Circles
In 1981, the Cook Islands government began adopting a series of wealth-protection and asset-friendly laws that have come to play a definitive role in offshore financial circles.
The Cook Islands are small in population and remote from the rest of the world. The 15 volcanic islands and coral atolls are scattered over 770,000 square miles of the South Pacific, between American Samoa to the west and French Polynesia to the east.
A former British protectorate, it is now an independent country in a unique, self-governing free association with New Zealand. Cook Islands citizens are also citizens of New Zealand, and as such, have free access to Australia.
Its economy is based on tourism and its role as a small but leading offshore financial center – although it has many natural assets, which include fine beaches, leading resorts, volcanic mountains and, of course, those famous black pearls.
Puai, who is a native Cook Islander, told us that 20 years ago when he was a young attorney at an Auckland, New Zealand law firm, he was surprised to be “sent home” to Rarotonga, the Cook Islands capital, to open a new law office.
“I’ve been here ever since,” he said with a satisfied smile.
Paui is now the respected owner and head of one of the six licensed Cook Islands trust companies, Ora Fiduciary.
The Cook Islands’ offshore industry resulted from the government’s official collaboration with the local financial services industry and American offshore attorneys. Financial services now rank second only to tourism in the economy.
On the tourism front the Cook Islands can be fun. One of its teams just won the award for the Pacific’s “Best Cricket Promotion and Marketing Program” and two of their leading resorts, Manava Luxury Villas & Spa, and the Pacific Resort Aitutaki, were voted “World’s Leading Island Villas” in what the Wall Street Journal called “the Oscars of the travel industry.”
What Makes the Cook Islands Special
But what makes the Cook Islands of special interest to the Sovereign Society is that it offers foreigners the ultimate in asset protection with:
- Modern asset protection trusts (APTs)
- International business corporations (IBCs)
- Limited liability companies (LLCs), and
- Partnerships
Those laws meticulously provide for the care and operation of offshore banks, insurance companies, maritime shipping and especially low cost asset protection trusts. It is possible to open local bank accounts, brokerage and investment accounts, with minimums far less than those required in, say, Switzerland or Austria.
The Cook Islands has a very strict financial privacy law that even the U.S government has been unable to crack – even though it tried. It’s the perfect place to protect your assets and your business for the rest of your life.
In the 1980s, a group of U.S. attorneys played an active role in advising the government on asset-protection issues, and even drafted statutes for the Cook Islands’ parliament.
That may be one reason that the Cook Islands trust law embodies all the best legal concepts concerning modern trusts. As such, it has served as the example for many other offshore financial centers. Its trust legislation is cutting edge.
The world experts who have examined the Cook Islands APT law for 20 years endorse it fully.
That’s why the Cook Islands’ 1989 asset-protection trust law has now been implemented in one form or another in 13 countries and eight U.S. states. These countries include Nevis, Belize, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, The Bahamas, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands. The states include Delaware, South Dakota, Missouri, and Alaska.
Strong Financial Privacy Laws
However, the Cook Islands is not a place to attempt tax evasion.
Strong financial privacy laws are augmented by the Cook Islands’adoption of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Article 26 standards, which allow for the exchange of tax information among governments.
As a matter of interest, the Cook Islands government has signed tax information exchange agreements with Mexico, France, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand – but not with the U.S.
Nonetheless, as a place of beauty and an ideal place to protect your assets and your business interests, it’s one of my favorites.
Faithfully yours,
Bob Bauman, JD
P.S. If you want to know more, I have written a special study on the Cook Islands for our Freedom Alliance members and Offshore Confidential subscribers. I will be pleased to send it to new members and subscribers.
Other Posts from the Author
- Leftist Lies Attacks Your Right to Privacy - February 22nd, 2012
- Don't Leave Your Estate Planning Until It's Too Late - February 22nd, 2012
- Panama: An Offshore Banking Playground Just a Short Flight Away - February 16th, 2012
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as a recent member of freedom alliance, i am interested in
additional info on cook island.
BOB REPLIES: Thank you for your inquiry and for becoming a member of the Freedom Alliance. Welcome.
I am sending you via email two special reports on the Cook Islands that previously were sent to Freedom Alliance members, in case they predated your membership.
In addition you can go to our website, http://sovereign-investor.com/ and use the search engine. You will find many articles on the Cook Islands, including this recent one: http://sovereign-investor.com/2012/01/27/the-cook-islands-an-offshore-financial-haven-the-us-cant-crack/
In the future if you wish to contact us about Freedom Alliance questions, email us at theoffshoreconfidential@gmail.com, or call Member Services Toll-Free: 1-888-358-8125.