Warren Buffett’s charitable giving over the past two decades now totals around $60 billion, after the billionaire investor recently announced plans to give away another $6 billion to five different charities, including the Gates Foundation.
The 94-year-old said in a press release on June 27, that this total amount — all donated in shares of his company, Berkshire Hathaway — is “substantially more than my entire net worth in 2006.”
Indeed, in 2006, Buffett’s net worth was roughly $46 billion, according to that year’s Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. At the time, this made him the second-wealthiest person in the U.S., behind Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose net worth was then estimated at $53 billion.
As of Wednesday morning, Forbes estimates Buffett’s net worth at $145.2 billion, making him the seventh-wealthiest person in the world.
With his latest round of donations, Buffett is continuing to fulfill his 2006 commitment to give away more than 99% of his wealth, as part of the Giving Pledge he launched with longtime friend Bill Gates.
At the time, Buffett pledged to donate roughly 4% of his remaining shares in Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company that currently boasts a market value over $1 trillion. Buffett still owns about 13.8% of Berkshire’s shares, Reuters reported on June 27.
Buffett’s net worth has continued to climb over the past two decades along with Berkshire’s rising market value, though the iconic investor downplayed any strategies that would have helped fuel that growth: “Nothing extraordinary has occurred at Berkshire; a very long runway, simple and generally sound decisions, the American tailwind and compounding effects produced my current wealth,” he noted in the press release.
Roughly $1.4 billion of Buffett’s latest stock donations are split between four different family-run foundations, including charities led by each of his three children, and one named for his late wife, Susan Thompson Buffett, who died in 2004. The other $4.6 billion gift goes to the Gates Foundation.
While Buffett said he’s committed to fulfilling his pledge to donate to these charities annually throughout his lifetime, the billionaire confirmed to The Wall Street Journal in 2024, that his donations to the Gates Foundation will cease upon his death.
The task of dispersing the vast majority of Buffett’s wealth after his death will mostly fall to his three children. However, in 2024, Buffett announced that he had updated his will, to add three independent trustees to his charitable trust, to potentially succeed his children.
The move was meant to reduce any uncertainty about how Buffett’s wealth will be distributed in the future, he explained in a 2024 letter that spoke out against “dynastic” wealth.
“I’ve never wished to create a dynasty or pursue any plan that extended beyond the children,” Buffett wrote. “I know the three [independent trustees] well and trust them completely. Future generations are another matter. Who can foresee the priorities, intelligence and fidelity of successive generations to deal with the distribution of extraordinary wealth amid what may be a far different philanthropic landscape?”
In the same letter, he suggested that all parents make sure that their children “read your will before you sign it,” in order to understand “both the logic for your decisions and the responsibilities they will encounter upon your death,” Buffett wrote.
“You don’t want your children asking ‘Why?’ in respect to testamentary decisions,” he added, “when you are no longer able to respond.”
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