Offshore Broker: What Its Own Terms Say

Offshore Broker is a trading name of Wealth Web Marketing Limited. It markets Cook Islands Trusts to U.S. clients, among other offshore structures, with a Cook Islands Trust package starting at $10,000.

This page looks at what Offshore Broker's own website and Terms of Use say about three things a U.S. client should understand before signing: whether communications are privileged, who oversees the work, and who can be held accountable if the structure fails.

A disclosure: Blake Harris Law competes for the same clients, and I co-founded Atlas Trust Company, a Cook Islands trustee. Everything below is drawn from Offshore Broker's published pages, which are linked so you can read them yourself.

Who Is Offshore Broker?

By its own description, an intermediary. Its homepage says its role is to coordinate communication between clients and the providers who actually form and run the structure. Its terms describe the company as a broker that works with trustee companies, banks, asset managers, accountants and lawyers, and they state that it may be paid a fee directly by those providers.

The site lists offices in Auckland, New Zealand and Avarua in the Cook Islands. Its About page places its team in Rarotonga and Sydney, with a background mainly in offshore banking, trust administration and marketing. Its Cook Islands Trust package lists legal and tax advice as optional extras.

None of that is unusual for an offshore service company, and the team's banking experience is real. The questions below are about what the client is buying and what they are not.

No Attorney-Client Privilege

Offshore Broker's terms are direct about this: "Wealth Web is not a law firm." They go on to say it does not provide legal, tax or fiduciary services, that nothing its staff say counts as legal advice, and that any trust deed or other document it prepares is for administrative and coordination purposes and should be reviewed by the client's own lawyer before signing.

That matters because attorney-client privilege generally protects confidential communications between a client and a lawyer made to obtain legal advice. It does not generally extend to a client's communications with a company that is not a law firm. In a creditor challenge, the first thing opposing counsel usually wants is the story of how and why the trust was set up: the emails, the intake forms, the questions about assets and lawsuits. Communications with a broker may be fair game.

If you add the optional legal advice, ask who the lawyer represents, where they are licensed, and whether you communicate with them directly or through the broker. We explain the difference in more detail in attorney-client privilege vs. confidentiality in asset protection.

No Bar Oversight

A U.S. lawyer who designs and drafts a Cook Islands Trust is licensed by a state bar or supreme court, bound by its ethics rules, and subject to discipline if they get it wrong. Those rules impose duties of competence, confidentiality and loyalty, including rules on conflicts of interest and on disclosing financial relationships with anyone the lawyer recommends.

Because Offshore Broker is not a law firm, none of that applies to its work. There is no state bar to complain to and no ethics rule governing how it chooses which trustee or bank to recommend. Its terms say providers may pay it directly, so it is reasonable to ask which provider pays it, how much, and whether that affects the recommendation. We disclose our own connection to Atlas for exactly that reason. You can read about our relationship with Atlas here.

No One in the U.S. to Hold Accountable

We could not find a U.S. office, a U.S. entity or a U.S.-licensed professional anywhere on Offshore Broker's site. Its listed addresses are in New Zealand and the Cook Islands. Its terms add several provisions a U.S. client should read closely:

• New Zealand law and courts. The terms are governed by New Zealand law, and any dispute must be brought exclusively in the courts of New Zealand.
• A cap on liability. Its total liability is limited to the fees it received for the service in question, and it excludes liability for indirect and consequential losses.
• No responsibility for whether the structure works. The terms say it does not guarantee that any trust it facilitates will protect assets from creditors, and that it bears no responsibility for the legal or financial outcome.
• An indemnity running the other way. The client agrees to indemnify Wealth Web against claims relating to the effectiveness of the structure, including creditor actions and court decisions.
• The documents stay theirs. Trust deeds and related documents it prepares remain its intellectual property. The client receives a revocable license to use them, which ends on non-payment or breach of the terms.

Put together, if the structure is challenged and does not hold, the client's recourse against the company that set it up is a claim in New Zealand, capped at the fee.

Questions to Ask Before You Sign

These apply to Offshore Broker and to any provider that is not a law firm.

• Who drafts the trust deed, and is that person a licensed lawyer? Where are they admitted?
• Are my communications with you privileged? If not, who could obtain them?
• Which trustee and bank will you use, and do they pay you a fee? How much?
• If a creditor challenges the trust, who defends it, and at what cost?
• Where would I bring a claim against you if something goes wrong, and what is your liability limited to?
• Who owns the trust documents once I have paid?
• Who handles U.S. tax reporting, and who checks that the structure works for a U.S. person?

Is the Lower Price Worth It?

A $10,000 package is less than a law-firm engagement, and for some people the difference will look decisive. But the parts left out are the ones that matter most when the trust is tested: privileged advice about timing and transfers, a professional who answers to a regulator, and someone in the U.S. who is responsible for the structure working. We cover that trade-off in more depth in the real risk of a discount Cook Islands Trust, and what a full engagement costs in our Cook Islands Trust cost breakdown.

If you have already set up a structure through a non-law-firm provider and want it reviewed, our Offshore Watchdog offers a free, confidential review.