Warren Buffett speaks during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting on May 4, 2024 in Omaha, Nebraska.
CNBC
Warren Buffett donated his largest-ever annual donation on Friday, worth $5.3 billion Berkshire Hathaway Shares in 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, a statement said Friday. A total of 9.93 million shares went to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the rest going to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late first wife, and the three charities run by his children Howard, Susan and Peter Buffett .
The “Oracle of Omaha” has pledged to give away the fortune he built at Berkshire, the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate he led in 1965. Buffett has donated to the five charities annually since 2006.
As of Friday’s donations, Buffett owns 207,963 Berkshire A shares and 2,586 B shares, worth about $130 billion.
New charitable foundation
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Buffett made it clear that after his death, the enormous fortune he amassed by building the unique conglomerate will go to a new charitable foundation run by his three children.
“It should be used to help people who weren’t as lucky as us,” he told the Journal. “There are eight billion people in the world, and me and my children were in the happiest hundredth of 1% or so. There are many ways to help people.”
Buffett has previously stated that his three children are the executors of his will and the appointed trustees of the charitable foundation that will receive over 99% of his assets.
He told the Journal that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would no longer receive donations after his death. Buffett resigned as trustee of the Gates Foundation in June 2021 in the midst of Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce.
At Berkshire’s annual meeting in May, Buffett spoke candidly to shareholders about a future in which he is no longer at the helm, appearing serious at times as he reflected on his advanced age and reflected on his late friend and business partner Charlie Munger.
Greg Abel, vice chairman of non-insurance operations at Berkshire, was named Buffett’s successor and has taken on most of the responsibilities at the conglomerate.
Buffett previously said his will would be made public after his death.
“After I die, the disposition of my assets will be an open book – no ‘fancy’ trusts or foreign corporations that escape public scrutiny, but a simple will available for inspection at the Douglas County Courthouse,” Buffett said in the November.
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2024-06-28 14:17:53
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