Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has said donations to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will cease after his passing
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has said that after his death, almost all of his fortune will be transferred to a charitable trust managed by his three children.
Buffett, who is the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway and owns nearly $130 billion in the holding company’s stock, will turn 94 in August.
In an interview with the Washington Post published on Saturday, the billionaire said his vast donations to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) will come to an end after his passing. “The Gates Foundation has no money coming after my death,” he said.
Since 2006, when Buffett decided to give away parts of his wealth to charity, the BMGF has received $39.3 billion from him, according to its website. As part of the latest round of donations, announced by Berkshire Hathaway on Friday, the foundation set up by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife will be getting another $4 billion in Berkshire Hathaway shares.
The BMGF was founded in 2000, and has become one of the largest charitable organizations in the world. The foundation says that its main goals are to improve healthcare and reduce extreme poverty around the globe.
Buffett, who has already given away more than a half of his Berkshire Hathaway shares, has said donations to four other foundations – with which he has been working over the past two decades – will also continue only as long as he is alive.
After Buffett’s death, his money will be transferred to a trust overseen by his two sons and daughter, who will alone decide on how to use the funds for philanthropic purposes, according to the investor.
"I feel very, very good about the values of my three children, and I have 100% trust in how they will carry things out,” he said.
Susie Buffett, who is 71, and Howie Buffett, 69, already head their own charitable foundations. They are also both members of the Berkshire Hathaway board. The billionaire’s youngest son, Peter Buffett, 66, is a music composer.
Buffett told the Wall Street Journal that he now wants his wealth to “be used to help the people that haven’t been as lucky as we have been. There’s eight billion people in the world, and me and my kids, we’ve been in the luckiest 100th of 1% or something. There’s lots of ways to help people.”
