Warren Buffet on Tuesday announced that he had gifted around $876 million (approximately ₹7,250 crore) worth of Berkshire Hathaway shares to charitable foundations run by his children ahead of Thanksgiving.
The donations consist of 2.4 million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway shares. The 1.5 million shares are allocated to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late wife. Additionally, 0.9 million shares are evenly distributed among three charities overseen by his children – The Sherwood Foundation, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation.
“My children, along with their father, have a common belief that dynastic wealth, though both legal and common in much of the world including the United States, is not desirable,” the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chief executive officer said in a Thanksgiving letter to shareholders.
Warren Buffett, ranked as the world’s ninth-richest individual with a net worth of $120.8 billion, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has seen his fortune grow by $13.3 billion this year.
This act follows Buffett’s annual summer donations to these foundations and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For the second consecutive year, Buffett has extended additional gifts to the family foundations during the Thanksgiving period.
Buffett shared plans for his children to serve as trustees of a charitable trust inheriting 99 per cent of his wealth after his passing. He said that the charitable donation of his wealth will be transparent and open to public scrutiny.
The 93-year-old billionaire, who expressed feeling “good but fully realise I am playing in extra innings,” emphasised his commitment to simplicity, saying that the disposition of his assets will be outlined in a straightforward will available for inspection at the Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska, where he resides.
Buffett, who committed to giving away his fortune in 2006, estimated in 2021 that he had already donated about half of his wealth, leaving the remaining shares valued at around USD 100 billion.
