Atlas Trust Company

Atlas Trust Company is a licensed Cook Islands trustee that began operations in 2025. Atlas is regulated by the Cook Islands Financial Supervisory Commission and licensed to administer international trusts and LLCs.

Regulatory Status

Atlas holds a Cook Islands FSC trustee license. The licensing requirements include minimum paid-up capital of NZD 250,000, professional indemnity insurance, fit and proper person clearance for directors and officers, annual audited financial statements, and an annual compliance declaration. The Commission can also investigate a licensee on a complaint or a suspected breach.

Every licensed Cook Islands trustee meets these requirements, whether it began in 2025 or has operated since the 1980s.

Services and Fee Structure

Atlas provides trustee services for international asset protection trusts and Cook Islands LLCs. It charges one fixed annual fee, with no hourly billing, that covers trustee services, company formation, and ongoing administration. Atlas does not publish the amount on its site.

Trustees that bill by the item charge about $5,000 a year plus $750 to $1,000 for each distribution or asset movement. Their flat-rate alternative runs about $7,000. Which model costs less depends on how much activity the trust generates. For a settlor who draws on the trust regularly, the flat rate costs less and fixes the annual number in advance.

Atlas gives the settlor’s investment advisor and trust protector defined roles in the structure. Like any Cook Islands trustee, it is bound by the trust deed, including a duress clause requiring it to disregard instructions given under court pressure. Atlas accepts cryptocurrency and other digital assets into its trust and LLC structures.

Onboarding

Atlas runs the KYC and AML screening that every licensed Cook Islands trustee applies: identity verification, proof of address, tax residency, source of funds documentation, and disclosure of any current or pending litigation. Enhanced due diligence applies to higher-risk profiles: a settlor in active or recent litigation, for example, or one whose corporate structure or asset history needs more documentation.

Atlas states that it establishes a trust in about a week once the settlor’s documents are complete and due diligence has cleared. Gathering those documents and opening the trust’s accounts add time on either side of that week, and complex structures or international banking arrangements extend the overall timeline.

How Atlas Compares

Atlas competes on its pricing model. The established trustees either itemize distributions and asset movements or charge a flat rate of about $7,000. Atlas quotes one annual figure and bills nothing by the hour.

Its chief executive, Marcos Almeida, headed the legal department of another Cook Islands trustee company before co-founding Atlas.

Southpac has operated since 1982 and has administered trusts through contested creditor proceedings since the late 1990s. A trustee that opened in 2025 cannot show that record yet. Atlas suits a settlor who values a predictable fee over a long track record. Someone facing active or foreseeable litigation will weigh the established firms’ litigation history more heavily.

Licensed Cook Islands trustees differ on track record, administrative capability, fee structure, banking relationships, and performance under creditor pressure. The statute and the bank accounts behind a Cook Islands trust protect nothing unless the trustee holds the line when that pressure arrives.