1. A trust registered in virtue of the international trust law of the Cook Islands of 1984 (and amendments) has the right to benefits and protection that the law offers.
  2. The Law provides a registration system through which a registered trust is protected from Common Law as well as from the laws set in the Cook Islands as for such laws contradict the law.
  3. The application for registration is done by a licensed trust company. The application must certify that no resident in the Cook Islands is beneficiary, notify the date of the trust deed, the name of the trustee and the name of the trust. There are no requirements that establish that the trust deed must be presented to the Registry Secretary.
  4. All the information relating to the international trust, including the trust deed and the identity of the parties involved in the trust is confidential and is subject to the dispositions of bank secrecy of the law.
  5. The law creates a neutral and flexible tax surrounding where the English concept of family trust can be used for tax planning as well as asset protection.
  6. Trust beneficiaries and trustees of an international trust are exempt from all taxes or burdens in the Cook Islands.
  7. The legislation resolves some of the difficult aspects of Common Law related to trusts. The norm, modern versus perpetuity have been abolished, although if the trustee wishes, can choose a specific period of perpetuity at the moment the trust is established. Other norms of Common Law are also not applicable, such as the norm against accumulations and double possibilities.
  8. The law, as consequence of the amendments of 1989 and 1991, contain innovative dispositions for asseT protection held by international trusts.
  9. The legislation overcomes specific problems of Common Law to offer protection to trustees and beneficiaries from the unjustified claims of trust assets.
  10. More recent amendments of 1996 and 1999 have broadened the definition and role of the protector, expanding the reach of the trust and adopting, with little modification, Section 50 of the trust law of New Zealand of 1956 regarding trust guardians.