Warren Buffett has distributed another $1 billion of his wealth in what is fast becoming a Thanksgiving tradition for the world’s seventh-richest man. This year, however, he also seemed to offer a rebuke to billionaires who flaunt their wealth and discussed more of what would happen to his fortune when he dies.
In a letter released Monday, Buffett said he plans to donate roughly $1.14 billion in stock to four different charities. Roughly $720 million will go to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, with $144 million going to each of the foundations run by his three children— The Sherwood Foundation, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation.
This is the second year in a row Buffett has distributed a significant amount of funds right before Thanksgiving. Last year, he donated $870 million to his children’s charities.
Buffett, in the letter describing the distribution, also examined his own mortality and discussed the trappings of wealth.
“Father Time always wins,” he wrote. “But he can be fickle—indeed unfair and even cruel—sometimes ending life at birth or soon thereafter while, at other times, waiting a century or so before paying a visit. To date, I’ve been very lucky but, before long, he will get around to me.”
Buffett is 94 years old. His business partner, Charlie Munger, died last year at the age of 99, 34 days before his 100th birthday. Buffett has not made any announcements that would give rise to concern about his health, but he is well-known for his love of junk food, often stopping by McDonald’s for breakfast (or, when he’s on the road, grabbing a pack of Oreos).
“I checked the actuarial tables, and the lowest death rate is among six-year-olds,” he has joked. “So, I decided to eat like a six-year-old. It’s the safest course I can take.”
“A downside to my good fortune”
Buffett’s look at the complications of wealth also touched on the need that some billionaires seem to have to flaunt their riches, something he has long avoided.
“I am . . . lucky that my philanthropic philosophy has been enthusiastically embraced—and widened—by both of my wives,” he wrote. “Neither I, Susie Sr. nor Astrid, who succeeded her, believed in dynastic wealth. Instead, we shared a view that equal opportunity should begin at birth and extreme ‘look-at me’ styles of living should be legal but not admirable. As a family, we have had everything we needed or simply liked, but we have not sought enjoyment from the fact that others craved what we had.”
Buffett said he and his first wife, Susie, who passed away in 2004, encouraged their children to take part in philanthropic endeavors and not to be obsessed with touting their financial good fortune.
“Susie Jr., Howie, and Peter have each spent far more time directly helping others than I have,” Buffett wrote. “They enjoy being comfortable financially, but they are not preoccupied with wealth.”
When Buffett dies, virtually all of his $150 billion in wealth will be funneled into a new charitable trust that will be overseen by his children. And the three must decide unanimously on how the money is distributed, he has said.
“My children will forever be besieged with earnest requests from very sincere friends and others,” he said. “Hence, the ‘unanimous decision’ provision. That restriction enables an immediate and final reply to grant-seekers: ‘It’s not something that would ever receive my brother’s consent.’ And that answer will improve the lives of my children.”
No money will be going to the Gates Foundation, which he has previously given more than $43 billion. (Buffett resigned as a director of that Foundation in 2021, following the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates.) Buffett, who cofounded the Giving Pledge, has now given away more than 56% of his wealth.
In discussing his own death, Buffett also offered some advice to all parents, regardless of their level of wealth: Talk with your kids about your will. That open communication, he said, can preemptively stop any troubles after your demise—and gives your heirs a chance to make suggestions.
“You don’t want your children asking “Why?” in respect to testamentary decisions when you are no longer able to respond,” he wrote. “Over the years, Charlie and I saw many families driven apart after the posthumous dictates of the will left beneficiaries confused and sometimes angry. Jealousies, along with actual or imagined slights during childhood, became magnified, particularly when sons were favored over daughters, either in monetary ways or by positions of importance.”
Buffett’s children are now ages 71, 69, and 66—and he’s acknowledged that his finances are likely to outlive the three. He said in Monday’s letter that three potential successor trustees have already been picked, just in case.
“I’ve never wished to create a dynasty or pursue any plan that extended beyond the children. I know the three well and trust them completely,” he wrote. “Still, the massive wealth I’ve collected may take longer to deploy than my children live. And tomorrow’s decisions are likely to be better made by three live and well-directed brains than by a dead hand.”