Southpac Trust Limited

Southpac Trust is the oldest licensed trustee company in the Cook Islands, established in 1982, two years before the International Trusts Act 1984 was enacted. The firm worked directly with leading attorneys during the 1980s to develop the asset protection legislation that defines the Cook Islands as a trust jurisdiction. Southpac holds a trustee license issued by the Cook Islands Financial Supervisory Commission under the Trustee Companies Act 2014, with its principal office in Rarotonga.

That legislative history is not incidental. Southpac’s involvement in drafting the statutes means the firm’s institutional understanding of Cook Islands trust law extends to the policy objectives and structural choices underlying the legislation, not just the enacted text. For clients whose trusts may be tested in contested proceedings, a trustee with that depth of understanding occupies a different position than one interpreting the law from the outside.

Scale and Jurisdictional Reach

Southpac operates across three jurisdictions through separate legal entities: Southpac Trust Limited (Cook Islands), Southpac Trust Nevis Limited (established 2000), and Southpac Trust NZ Limited (New Zealand). Southpac Group Limited, based in New Zealand, provides liaison services across these entities. The entities are legally separate — no officer or employee of the group company acts as an officer of the trustee companies or has signatory authority over them.

The firm administers trustee services for over 750 existing trusts and employs 26 people across its offices. In the Cook Islands trustee market, this represents the largest client base and organizational footprint among locally headquartered firms. Southpac Trust Nevis has registered over 1,000 LLCs.

This multi-jurisdictional capability is relevant for clients whose structures combine Cook Islands trusts with Nevis LLCs—one of the most common asset protection configurations. Having the same institutional group administer both the trust and the underlying LLC simplifies coordination, reduces the number of service provider relationships, and allows the trustee to manage the entire structure with consistent institutional knowledge. The Cook Islands trust and Nevis LLC combination is discussed further in the funding cluster’s LLC interests article.

Services

Southpac’s core services include trustee and fiduciary services for international trusts (including International Relationship Property Trusts), registered agent services for Cook Islands LLCs, international companies, and foundations, and corporate officer appointments (protector, manager, secretary, foundation council member).

Beyond standard trust administration, two service areas distinguish Southpac from smaller competitors:

Investment coordination. Southpac maintains established relationships with boutique investment advisors and private banks in multiple jurisdictions, including Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Nevis, Belize, and the United States. The banks the firm works with are typically non-lending institutions with conservative balance sheets. For clients who need investment management within their trust structure, Southpac can facilitate introductions and coordinate custody arrangements through its existing institutional relationships rather than requiring the client to establish these connections independently.

Professional advisor channel. Southpac operates a structured referral program for attorneys, CPAs, family offices, and financial advisors, including tiered pricing based on referral volume. This institutional approach reflects the firm’s positioning as a trustee that works primarily through professional intermediaries rather than marketing directly to individual clients. For attorneys recommending trustees to their clients, this model provides a formalized working relationship with established protocols.

Banking Infrastructure

The Cook Islands hosts Capital Security Bank (CSB), a full-service private bank established in 1997 that was developed in part to service entities managed by Cook Islands trustee companies, including Southpac. CSB is a SWIFT member, offers self-directed trading and managed investment accounts, and maintains a capital adequacy ratio exceeding Basel III requirements.

The presence of an on-island bank with direct relationships to the trustee market simplifies account opening, custody, and transaction processing for Cook Islands trust structures. While trust assets do not need to be banked in the Cook Islands — and many clients hold accounts in Switzerland or other international banking centers — CSB provides a banking option within the same jurisdiction as the trustee, which can be advantageous for certain asset types and administrative requirements.

Considerations

Southpac’s primary strengths are institutional longevity, legislative pedigree, organizational scale, multi-jurisdictional capability, and established banking and investment relationships. These qualities are most valuable for clients with complex structures (trust plus LLC, multi-jurisdictional assets), significant asset values, and long time horizons where institutional continuity matters.

The firm’s institutional scale also means its operational approach is more structured than smaller, founder-led trustees. Clients interact with dedicated client services officers rather than directly with principals. For some clients, this is an advantage—it reflects professional organizational depth and reduces key-person risk. For others who prefer a direct relationship with the trustee’s decision-maker, smaller firms may offer different communication dynamics.

Southpac’s fee structure is published and includes all-inclusive annual packages for trusts and LLCs, with additional fees for specific services (corporate officer appointments, account maintenance, tax filings) charged separately. The published pricing and structured service model reflect a firm oriented toward professional advisors and institutional clients rather than ad hoc engagement.

For guidance on evaluating Cook Islands trustees, see how to choose a Cook Islands trustee. For profiles of other licensed trustees, return to the Cook Islands trust companies overview. For comprehensive information about Cook Islands trust planning, see the Cook Islands trust overview.