i used an agent called C S Trust which is (supposedly?) family owned and bigger than most of their competitors... dependable etc... (i'm not sure if this can be verified remotely).
in the end, i went with them because the boss (?) was not afraid to lose me as a customer and gave me frank replies to my questions. also, i verified that they were indeed a registered company AND registered trust company at the official Labuan government website, and i scrolled through a list of registered companies and found that they were indeed acting as an agent for a good number of entities (international range of customers, based on the company names).
they did not require that i send them a lot of documents immediately. someone just needed to sight my documents via Skype video to start... i don't think he had any screen capture program running. then he encouraged that i send all the sighted and signed documents to him "soon" but didn't actually say when - whether this will be followed up or not i'm not sure but at the moment i'm not keen on sending any documents over.
the e-form was complicated to fill up, but he was able to explain what i didn't understand over the phone and tell me what "substitute" information i can use. i signed it using Acrobat Pro (touch screen + finger) and sent it to him and it was accepted.
they offered to open the
bank account on my behalf after incorporation (for a fee of $500 and probably 2 other costs for them to act as my tax agent and book keeper) or to assist me when i want to open it myself. at this stage i do not need banking yet, so i did not opt for that banking package.
(i recall it will take about 6-8 weeks for the bank account to be opened and then the banking token to be sent to me)
if i pay a flat rate of $2,000 in company tax a year, there's no audit required. i will probably start a bank account later this year when i need it - i don't see a need to pay for a service earlier than necessary. taxes are not necessary for my use of an
investment holding company.
i did not get the impression that opening a bank account was difficult or onerous.
for the initial incorporation service, i paid $500 + $1,300. the annual fee for using them after that will be $1,300.
i was happy because he submitted a company name reservation (at his risk/cost) before i sent him money, the process was not as complicated as i thought, and faster than i expected.
they accept paypal payments as well as a traditional bank wire. i hope this helps - i can't guarantee you will get the same experience i did. good luck!
