We help you incorporate a Limited Liability Company in the Cayman Islands

No. A Cayman LLC is registered on a signed statement, and nothing in it has to be signed in the Islands. Members and managers may live anywhere, identity checks are done on copies, and the LLC agreement is drafted and agreed with you by email and calls. Once the LLC exists, the record pack is sent to you by courier at any address in the world.

Basic at US$2,999 covers the government fee for registration and the first annual fee, the registered agent and registered office in the Islands for year one, the registration statement with its declaration, the LLC agreement, the Registers of Members and Managers, the beneficial ownership register, membership interest papers, the digital confirmation of registration from the authorities and help opening an Airwallex account. Premium at US$4,249 adds the seal, the original registration paper, incumbency and good standing confirmations and authentication of the papers for use abroad.

Yes, and every package starts with guided help opening a multi-currency Airwallex business account, subject to Airwallex's own verification. For a bank account we advise on which institutions are comfortable with a Cayman LLC doing your kind of business, explain how a capital account reads to a banker used to shares, and prepare the papers the bank asks for. Whether an account is opened, and on what terms, rests with the bank.

Twelve duties in total, four of them on a yearly date. The economic substance notification goes in by 31 January, the annual return with its declaration follows in January, the government fee is paid by the end of March, and an economic substance return falls twelve months after the year end named in the registration statement, where a relevant activity was carried on. Eleven of the twelve sit inside the annual engagement from US$2,749 a year. Your part is the accounting records, including every capital account movement.

Yes to both. Taking on an existing Cayman LLC is a change of registered office. The LLC keeps its name, its number and its history, and nothing about the LLC agreement or the membership changes. The transfer costs US$350, then the annual package from US$2,749 a year. To wind it down we prepare the members' resolutions and the winding-up papers, coordinate the steps with the authorities on your behalf and manage the process until the LLC ceases to exist.

No. Cayman law requires an LLC to have a registered office in the Islands held by an approved corporate services provider, and the registration statement goes in through that provider. There is no form the members can send in directly. What we add is advice on whether an LLC or a company with shares fits the plan, an LLC agreement drafted around your deal, management of the registration on your behalf, and a team that stays on afterwards. We are an independent corporate services provider, not a government body.

No. Expanship is a privately owned company. We are not a government agency, department, registry or regulator, and we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for the Government of the Cayman Islands, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, or the General Registry. We advise you, prepare and coordinate your paperwork, and handle the incorporation on your behalf. Whether a company is approved, and when, is decided by those authorities alone.

Our own work: advice on the right structure, due diligence on every member, preparing and coordinating the incorporation paperwork, handling the incorporation on your behalf, and the first year of registered agent and registered office. The government fees are set by the Cayman Islands authorities, not by us, and are passed on at cost inside the package price.

One member, at all times, and no manager. Unless the LLC agreement says otherwise the members run the vehicle themselves by a majority in number. They may instead appoint one manager or a board of them, with no minimum and no maximum set, and a manager need not be a member. Members and managers may be of any nationality and live anywhere. Where managers are appointed, the Register of Managers is filed with the authorities in the Cayman Islands, while the Register of Members stays private at the registered office.

Yes. A member of a Cayman LLC may be a person, a company, a partnership or a trustee holding for a trust, so a fund in any of those forms can hold an interest. A manager need not be a member and may be an entity as well as an individual. Whoever sits above the LLC, Cayman law looks through each layer until a person at 25% or more is reached, and that person goes on the beneficial ownership register, which is not public.

By the LLC agreement, and almost nothing else. Each member contributes what the agreement says, in cash, property, services or a promise to provide them, in any currency, and the contribution is credited to that member's capital account in the vehicle's own records. There is no minimum contribution and no share capital to authorise or maintain. Profit and loss are allocated on the terms the agreement sets, which need not track the capital accounts at all. Cayman law fills very few gaps, so the agreement has to say it.

No secretary, and no office of its own. Cayman law asks an LLC for neither a company secretary nor any officer, and the members or managers decide between themselves who signs. What the LLC must hold at all times is a registered office in the Islands, kept by a corporate services provider, and that comes with every package. Premises and staff of your own only come into it where the LLC carries on a relevant activity with a substance test attached.

An exempted company issues shares and is run by directors under a memorandum and articles. A Cayman LLC has members with capital accounts, is run by the members or by managers, and lives on a private LLC agreement plus a short registration statement. Its government fee does not move with capital, because there is none to band, and the tax undertaking available to it runs up to fifty years rather than twenty. Both declare that their business is carried on outside the Islands, and both file the same January returns.