To understand just how successful Warren Buffett has been during his six-decade run atop Berkshire Hathaway Inc., consider this: Even his $167 billion fortune doesn’t come close to capturing his wealth and influence.
Over the course of nearly 20 years, Buffett, 94, has gifted Berkshire shares worth more than $60 billion at the time of donation. That stock would now be worth some $230 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations.Warren has demonstrated through word and deed how to live an impactful and fulfilling life,” said Seth Klarman, chief executive officer of hedge fund Baupost Group, one of many billionaires to offer emotional tributes in the wake of news that Buffett will retire from running Berkshire at the end of the year.
Although Buffett had long stated his fortune would go to charity when he died, his giving was modest for much of his career, made through a foundation he set up in the 1960s that he later renamed for his late wife, Susan. But in 2006 he changed tack sharply, announcing he intended to give away 85% of his wealth, then valued at around $44 billion, starting immediately.Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves,” he wrote in the letter, referring to Berkshire stock, “neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others.”
Last year, he outlined in more detail in a letter to Berkshire shareholders what would happen to his remaining fortune when he died. His three children, Howard, Peter and Susie, will be tasked with donating his remaining shares, and will have to be in unanimous agreement on every decision. Separately, he confirmed the Gates Foundation, whose board he resigned from in 2021, would stop receiving gifts upon his death. Gates announced last week he plans to double his foundation’s giving and close it down in 2045.
Buffett never strayed too far, physically or in spirit, from his modest Nebraska roots. The son of a politician, he delivered papers and sold candy door-to-door as a boy to support his early fascination with the stock market and investing. He attended graduate school at Columbia University, where he studied under economist Ben Graham, the vaunted father of value investing.