Warren Buffett speaks at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting of Shareholders in Omaha, Nebraska on May 4, 2024.
CNBC
Warren Buffett on Friday made his biggest annual donation ever, giving away $5.3 billion Berkshire Hathaway shares for five charities.
The legendary investor, who turns 94 in August, converted 8,674 of his Berkshire Class A shares to donate more than 13 million Class B shares, according to a sixth statementA total of 9.93 million shares were transferred to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the remainder going to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late first wife, and three charities run by his children Howard, Susan and Peter Buffett.
The “Oracle of Omaha” has pledged to give away the entire fortune he built at Berkshire, the Omaha-based conglomerate he founded in 1965. Buffett has donated annually to five organizations. This charity since 2006.
After Friday’s donation, Buffett owns 207,963 Berkshire A shares and 2,586 B shares, worth about $130 billion.
New charity fund
In an interview with The Wall Street JournalBuffett made it clear that after his death, the vast wealth he amassed from building his one-of-a-kind corporation will be transferred to a new charitable foundation overseen by his three children.
“It should be used to help people who are not as fortunate as us,” he told the Journal. “There are eight billion people in the world, and me and my kids, we’re in the luckiest 100 percent or something like that. There are so many ways to help people.”
Buffett previously said his three children are the executors of his will as well as the named trustees of the charity that will receive more than 99% of his assets.
He told the WSJ that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will no longer receive donations after his death. Buffett resigned as a trustee at the Gates Foundation in June 2021 amid Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce.
At Berkshire’s annual meeting in May, Buffett spoke frankly with shareholders about the future when he is no longer in charge, sometimes appears solemn as he contemplates his old age and thinks about his late friend and business partner Charlie Munger.
Greg Abel, vice chairman of non-insurance operations at Berkshire, was named Buffett’s successor and will assume most of the responsibility at the conglomerate.
Buffett previously said his will would be made public after his death.
“After my death, the distribution of my assets will be a public record — no ‘creative’ trusts or offshore entities to avoid public scrutiny, just a simple will for the Douglas County Court to review,” Buffett said in November.
