Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett smiles while playing bridge after the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting on May 5, 2019 in Omaha, Nebraska.
Nati Harnik | AP
Warren Buffett donated more than $870 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock to four family foundations before Thanksgiving, assuring investors in a letter that the group is “built to last.”
The 93-year-old veteran investor donated 1.5 million Class B shares of his group to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his first wife. He gave 300,000 Class B shares to each of three foundations run by his children: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and Novo Foundation.
Buffett said, “They complement some of the lifelong pledges I made in 2006 and that they will continue until my death (at age 93, I feel good but totally feel like I’m playing extra innings).” Am)” in a statement.
He made a similar donation on Thanksgiving eve last year. The “Oracle of Omaha” pledged to donate the wealth he built at Berkshire, the Omaha-based conglomerate he started running in 1965. Buffett has been making annual donations to the same four charities since 2006.
Berkshire has a vast array of well-established businesses, from its crown-jewel Geico Insurance to BNSF Railway and about 6% of Apple.
The group’s shares have risen about 17% this year after hitting an all-time high in September.
Berkshire is built to last
In his letter, the longtime investing icon confirmed to Berkshire shareholders that the empire he has developed over the past six decades will stand the test of time, even without his oversight. .
Buffett said, “In the short term, Berkshire’s distinctive characteristics and behavior will be supported by my large Berkshire holdings. Soon, however, Berkshire will earn the reputation it deserves.” “Decay can happen in all types of large institutions, whether government, philanthropic or for-profit. But it is not inevitable. The advantage of Berkshire is that it is built to last.”
Greg Abel, vice president of non-insurance operations at Berkshire, has been named Buffett’s successor. Buffett praised Abel, saying he had taken on most of the responsibilities.
Buffett’s three children are the executors of his will and the named trustees of a charitable trust that will receive almost all of Buffett’s wealth.
Buffett said, “My children and their father have a common belief that dynastic wealth, although both legal and common in much of the world, including the United States, is not desirable.” “Moreover, we have had many opportunities to see that being rich makes you neither wise nor bad.”
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