“I need a bank that will challenge my thinking – and is equally comfortable being challenged.”
Sometimes life changes – and yet, in essence, remains the same. Real estate specialist Karl Theiler recently sold his company. Life has become less intense since then. What does he intend to do with his newfound freedom and financial resources? “I will continue to be entrepreneurial. It is simply in my nature.”
Throughout the conversation, his gaze repeatedly turns towards the distance. This is someone who does not dwell in the present but looks ahead. Behind the dynamic businessman lie decades of intense entrepreneurial work. What he has achieved is rightly called a career; what he is today is an entrepreneur through and through.
Seeing the bigger picture
The sale of his successful company remains vivid in his mind. It was a complex transaction, he says, and many things had to be initiated and completed at very short notice. Throughout the process, he needed “pragmatic, direct and fast support”. Then he adds: “And that is exactly what I had.” A Zürcher Kantonalbank advisory team supported him across even the most complex issues.
“They supported the sale, managed the payment flows, dealt with the tax issues and discussed succession arrangements – they brought all the different strands together and looked at the situation as a whole.”
More recently, the Theiler family moved into a new home. One might assume that a real estate professional would handle such a transaction entirely on his own. “That is not how it works,” he says. “The support of Zürcher Kantonalbank’s Private Banking team was important to us. Their real estate specialists know the market extremely well.” With the bank’s expertise, the property could be financed in a way that complements his investment portfolio.
His Relationship Manager was also at the table during the transaction: “For the seller, it was crucial that the transfer was completed quickly and with the highest level of professionalism.”
Why Zürcher Kantonalbank? He has been a client “since I was a baby”, he says; his parents opened an account for him early on. A lifelong attachment, then? Theiler is too pragmatic to see it in sentimental terms. “Of course I have repeatedly considered offers from other banks,” he says. Just as with close relationships and friendships, he believes a relationship with a bank has to be reinforced and renewed over time.
I am not choosing an institution; I am choosing the person across the table. You achieve more when there is a genuine exchange of views.
Karl Theiler, Private Banking client
“At the end of the day, I look at the terms and at performance.”
That was already true years ago when the Theiler family bought their first home with a Zürcher Kantonalbank mortgage. The purchase came about almost by chance, and their adviser responded well to what the family needed at the time. Later, when they lived abroad for a period, the relationship with Zürcher Kantonalbank continued. “We remained in close contact with our adviser. It was an honest relationship.” That kind of relationship creates loyalty; over time, adviser and client build a shared history.
During the recent sale of his company, Karl Theiler met a new Zürcher Kantonalbank Relationship Manager. He admits that he was sceptical at first. After the initial conversations, that scepticism disappeared and trust developed here too. “You build on relationships that consistently prove themselves.”
Asked what underpins a long-term banking relationship, Karl Theiler quickly returns to his business-minded pragmatism. “Of course, at the end of the day I look at the terms, the performance and what I am getting,” he says. For transactions, he needs a responsible counterpart – someone with whom he can have robust discussions and from whom he can learn. “I am not choosing an institution; I am choosing the person across the table. I want someone who will challenge my thinking and is equally comfortable being challenged. That kind of dialogue leads to better decisions.”
The freedom to choose what comes next
A new chapter, new perspectives and a focus on what comes next: what does Karl Theiler make of this transitional phase in the middle of his life? At the moment, he says with a laugh, he is the last in the family to get up in the morning. Checking his first emails at nine and then having a coffee in peace is new for him. He describes what the proceeds from the company sale have given him as “the freedom to decide what comes next”. His mountain bike now stands ready behind the house far more often than it did during the years of 14-hour working days.
His daughter, meanwhile, is delighted that her father can now attend her football matches regularly.
At the end of the day, I look at performance. And Zürcher Kantonalbank does a very good job.
Karl Theiler, Private Banking client
He and his wife also want to “give something back” to society. Scholarships made his university education possible, he explains. He is grateful for the opportunities Switzerland and its prosperity have afforded him. “I want to help ensure that future generations can also benefit from a strong starting position in Switzerland.” For him, this begins at a local level: he is actively involved in municipal politics in the community where he lives.
He and his wife also regularly consider how and where they can contribute to society not only through their own involvement, but also financially – and how to do so with a meaningful strategy.
It quickly becomes clear that an entrepreneur remains an entrepreneur. Real estate and investments continue to occupy Karl Theiler. He and his business partner already developed a clear plan after selling the company and correspond about it every day. Zürcher Kantonalbank is involved in more than a few of his plans. Some are still taking shape; others are already firmly decided.
One of those decisions is that the Theilers’ two children have youth accounts with Zürcher Kantonalbank – just as their father did before them.
