After brushing his face in front of the father and son of Maersk, John hurried to the third stop of this European trip - Switzerland. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Now that the family foundation's property is almost handled, with such a large amount of money and a bunch of jewelry and art, how can it be put aside? If you think about it, there is only Switzerland, which is known as the "safe deposit box of the world".

John chose Switzerland first and foremost because of safety. Sandwiched between Germany, France, and Italy, this small Central European country established itself as a "permanently neutral country" as early as the Congress of Vienna in 1815. During World War II, it was a rare "pure land".

Of course, Switzerland was able to remain neutral not because Hitler suddenly began to respect international law. Before the war, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Norway also declared permanent neutrality, and the Germans did not say that they would be beaten.

The reason why Switzerland can be so stubborn and remain neutral to the end is because of his own confidence. (Speaking of which, during World War II, Switzerland was really tough, whether you were an Allied or Axis plane, as long as you flew through my airspace, I would shoot you down mercilessly.) ）

First of all, Switzerland is known as the "Roof of Europe" because of its high mountains, and it is difficult for Germany's mechanized troops to exert their might.

Secondly, the Swiss are also very strong in combat, and they are engaged in "armed neutrality". Although they have not fought for hundreds of years, they have always maintained a militia army with 430,000 standing troops. (Historically, Swiss mercenaries were known for their ability to fight tough battles, and even the Pope and the French royal family hired them as their guards.) ）

Moreover, the Swiss are willing to spend money, are well-armed and build a large number of fortifications. At that time, underground bunkers of various sizes were built in Switzerland, which were sufficient for the entire permanent population. The comparative coverage of air defense measures and residents is 114%, ranking first in the world.

Finally, the Swiss also have a trump card in their hands, which is the Gotthard and Sinjinlong tunnels from Germany to Italy. Germany had to pass through this tunnel to transport supplies through the Alps to Italy. The Switzerland planted a large amount of explosives in the tunnels, and in the event of a German invasion, the Swiss would immediately blow it up, cutting off the land connection between Germany and Italy.

In 1940, Hitler drew up a "fir plan" to invade Switzerland. As a result, as soon as the German army reached the border, Switzerland carried out a general mobilization, organizing an armed force of 850,000 people (including army auxiliaries and the National Guard).

At that time, the total population of Switzerland was about 4 million, and almost all men in the country joined the army, and the length of service was once extended to 60 years. Seeing the desperate posture of the Swiss, Hitler thought that it was really not worth it, so he had to abandon the invasion plan.

Let's put it this way, Switzerland is like a hedgehog, seeing two hunting dogs fighting over a rabbit, he quickly got up and declared neutrality. The hounds saw that he did not have much meat, and pricked his mouth, so he let him go. Do you want to try it with that rabbit, does it have the right to declare neutrality?

Of course, Switzerland's neutrality did not come without a price. Although they did fulfill the basic obligations of neutral countries under international law, such as not participating in wars, guaranteeing their own national defense, treating all participating countries equally in the arms trade, and not providing soldiers to participating countries and not providing their own territory to participating countries.

However, many people in later generations accused Switzerland of being an accomplice in the plundering of Jewish property by transfusing the blood of the German Nazis during the war. The Swiss themselves admit that at that time they "worked for Germany six days a week, and prayed for the victory of the Allies on the seventh day". "Neutrality like Switzerland" even later became a colloquial phrase in German.

John, however, understood the Swiss choice. After all, it is still the great powers in this world who have the final say. You are a small country with the size of a sesame seed, just take care of your own business. Protecting the interests of the people is the most important thing, where is there so much excess "sense of justice".

After France knelt, Switzerland was on all sides the territory of the Axis powers, and the whole country was "rounded". What do you do to make a country with little land, few people, few resources, and even food self-sufficiency difficult? The refusal to engage in economic cooperation with the fascists is tantamount to the abolition of all imports and exports, and the Swiss people must not starve to death.

At the end of the 90s, there was a wave of international condemnation of Switzerland's misappropriation of the property of the Jewish victims. At first, John also felt that Switzerland was not a thing, and that it was not humanitarian at all, and only cared about making money from the dead.

Looking back now, how does John think that this is Europe and the United States and other countries taking the opportunity to find fault with Switzerland, and the real target is directly aimed at Switzerland's "Bank Secrecy Law".

The second reason why John chose Switzerland was because of the secrecy of Swiss banks

Speaking of which, the Bank Secrecy Act, which was popular with "rich people" like John, also had a credit to Hitler. At the beginning of the 30s, as a result of the Nazi government in Germany, German citizens were forced to transfer all their deposits in Swiss banks to the German National Bank. In order to prevent the recurrence of such loss of deposits, the Swiss government enacted the Bank Secrecy Act in 1934.

The law allows any depositor to open a deposit in a Swiss bank in a way that he or she deems appropriate and safe, and depositors are allowed to use a pseudonym, code or number in lieu of their real name. The real owner of the property when opening an account, making a deposit, withdrawing money, and transferring money can never show up. Under no circumstances may a bank employee divulge depositor secrets to a third party, whether private or official.

This is so much to the appetite of John and the others that it provides them with a "paradise" to hide their assets and avoid taxes.

And Switzerland has additional tax incentives for foreigners. The first is that foreigners open an account in Switzerland and do not need to pay interest tax. This can basically be ignored, and no rich person who goes to Switzerland to save money cares about this "small bargain".

The key is the second incentive, Switzerland does not levy an inheritance tax on foreigners. In other words, if John had deposited all his property in a Swiss bank, Switzerland would not have charged a penny in taxes when his children and grandchildren inherited it. As for whether and how much they have to pay taxes in the United States, it is all up to them.

You know, the "inheritance tax" in later generations is staggeringly high. At the beginning, the richest man in South Korea worked so hard to avoid this inheritance tax that he went to jail.

It is precisely because of Switzerland's "Bank Secrecy Law" that a large number of bank deposits in various countries have been lost, and tax revenues have been seriously lost, that countries such as Europe and the United States have turned over the old accounts of decades ago.

They didn't do it to get justice for the Jews who had been dead for forty or fifty years. They are trying to use this as a breakthrough to force Swiss banks to break with the tradition of not disclosing customer information. Once the opening of the matter is opened, the governments will be justified in asking the Swiss banks to cooperate with them in investigating the accounts of John and others.

Unfortunately, Switzerland did not resist and in 2001 published the names of the first 21,000 "dead" account holders. Since then, the secrecy system of Swiss banks has gradually collapsed.

In September 2013, the Swiss Federal Parliament approved a bilateral agreement between Switzerland and the United States amid controversy, allowing U.S. tax authorities to collect income tax on U.S. citizen accounts in Swiss banks. Switzerland will also implement automatic exchange of banking information and provide U.S. citizen accounts to U.S. tax authorities.

However, none of this had anything to do with John, and he certainly didn't live to that time. What he had to do now was to find a suitable bank to hold the property in custody.

Walking along the train station boulevard in the center of Zurich, John couldn't help but think of the scene from the film "Spy".

In the film, Jason Byrne, an international spy who has lost his memory, travels to a Swiss bank to find clues to his identity. As he travels to the Swiss bank to retrieve the safe deposit box, the professional insurance services and layers of security measures cast a layer of mystery on the Swiss bank.

John is now stepping on this street as a veritable "golden road". Although the avenue is flanked by buildings made of Alpine stone, the floors are not high or luxurious, and they seem to be nothing more than ordinary banks, chambers of commerce, high-end fashion stores and trading buildings. But underneath the road, there are the vaults of many banks, and countless gold ingots are piled up in them to form mountains of gold.

In the end, John chose not the big banks such as Union Bank of Switzerland, Bank of Zurich, Credit Suisse, and First Boston, but a very low-key private bank, Pictet Bank. It is a private bank founded in 1805 that specializes in providing private personal banking to its customers.

For more than 100 years, although Pictet Bank has one of the best assets under management in Switzerland, and its clients cover almost all of Europe's most well-known and wealthy families, they have never considered themselves banking giants, and still retain the noble lineage and noble qualities of classical private banks.

Even decades later, in the 21st century, Pictet Bank still adheres to the principle of "never engaging in investment banking business in order to ensure that there is no conflict of interests between banks and customers, and never goes public in order to ensure that it will not lose its independence under pressure from external shareholders", and is regarded as a model of the "blue-blooded aristocracy" in the private banking industry.

John's choice of Pictet Bank is also related to the nature of the family foundation. From the very beginning, Cornelius Sr. created this foundation to leave a way out for the family. This asset belongs to the whole family, John is just a manager, he doesn't need to spend too much effort to seek appreciation, asset preservation is what he needs most.

As we all know, large banks rely on professional management teams to help customers manage their wealth. Once these senior managers leave or retire, they are no longer accountable for the results of their operations. Therefore, it is undoubtedly difficult to ask them about the topic of constant production perseverance and sustainable management.

An old private bank like Pictet has a unique skill - Patrimony Management. Because the eight partners of Pictet Bank are also from a wealthy family that is hereditary. Only rich people can truly understand the needs of rich people. They are more adept at proposing a "sound" asset management model to ensure the stable growth of their clients' family and business assets, which in turn can be smoothly passed on to the next generation.

In the customer reception room of Pictet Bank, John is received by an old bank manager in a dark blue suit who looks like a palace butler. After filling out a bunch of forms, he was given a key and an account code. With the exception of the artworks and some securities that were sent to the bank safe, John held almost $8 million in other assets in trust to Pictet. Orders were given to one to convert all the money into gold by the month of 1939.