Warren Buffett notes mortality, pledges $1 billion in Berkshire stock

The 94-year-old CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway announced in a letter Monday he plans to convert 1,600 company A shares into 2.4 million B shares, worth about $1.14 billion. He’ll then distribute 1.5 million of the shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late wife, and 300,000 to each of his three children’s foundations.

Buffett—worth $150 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index—has been in the process of offloading his wealth since 2006 as part of his pledge to transfer 99% of his estate to philanthropic causes before his death. As of Monday’s announcement, Buffett has given away 56.6% of his fortune.

Transferring stock to his family’s philanthropic pursuits has become a tradition for the billionaire investor. Ahead of Thanksgiving last year, Buffett donated $870 million to his children’s charities.

Pouring resources into his children’s causes is a practice Buffett took from his wife Susan who died in 2004. She gave her three children their first gifts, about $10 million each, and left 96% of her $3 billion estate to her foundation.

Following his death, Buffett will cease donating to most other philanthropic organizations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to which he’s previously donated $39 billion. Buffett said his continued donations to his children’s causes is a testament to his trust in them.

“The children have now more than justified our hopes and, upon my death, will have full responsibility for gradually distributing all of my Berkshire holdings,” he said in the letter. “These now account for 99½% of my wealth.”

Buffett also addressed the future of his reserves beyond his kids, believing “the massive wealth I’ve collected may take longer to deploy than my children live.” His children are 71, 69, and 66.

He appointed three potential successor trustees to guide the family’s impact in the future in case his kids can’t serve. The “somewhat younger” successors were not named in the letter, but are well-known by and were agreed upon by Buffett’s children.

But his children’s maturation and ability to take on their father’s wealth has become inextricable from Buffett’s own mortality, something he’s keenly aware of.

“Father time always wins,” he said….