On November 25th Eastern Time, Berkshire Hathaway announced that Buffett will donate $1.146 billion in stock, bringing Buffett's total donation to over $58.8 billion. Previously, Buffett had publicly pledged to donate 99% of his personal wealth to charity during his lifetime or death. However, at the end of June this year, Buffett amended his will, stating that he would leave a $1300 inheritance to his children to manage.
Donated over 1.1 billion US dollars worth of stocks
On November 25th local time, Berkshire Hathaway announced that Warren Buffett will convert his 1600 Class A shares into 2.4 million Class B shares and donate these shares to four family foundations.
According to Berkshire Hathaway's statement, Buffett will donate 1.5 million Class B shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation, each receiving 300000 Class B shares.
According to Monday's closing price, Berkshire Hathaway's Class B shares are priced at $477.465, which means the total amount donated this time is approximately $1.146 billion. In the statement, Buffett stated that after this donation, his holdings of Class A shares in Berkshire Hathaway will be reduced to 206363 shares.
Donated over 58.8 billion US dollars
Prior to this donation of $1.146 billion in stocks, Buffett had also made a donation in June of this year.
On June 28, 2024 local time, a statement from Berkshire Hathaway announced that Buffett will donate approximately $5.3 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities, marking his largest annual donation since starting in 2006.
Berkshire Hathaway announced that Buffett will convert his 8674 Class A shares into approximately 13.01 million Class B shares and donate them to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation.
Among them, 9.9304 million shares were donated to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 993000 shares were donated to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, and 695100 shares were donated to the Sherwood Foundation, Howard Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation.
If calculated based on the closing price of $407.95 for Berkshire Hathaway's B-class stocks at the time, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will receive approximately $4.051 billion worth of B-class stocks, while the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation will receive approximately $405 million worth of B-class stocks. Buffett's daughter and son's foundations each received stocks worth over $284 million. The total value of the aforementioned stocks is approximately 5.308 billion US dollars.
On November 21, 2023, Buffett donated 1.5 million Class B shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. In addition, 300000 shares of Class B stock were donated to the Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation, which are run by their children. The total value of the aforementioned stocks was approximately 866 million US dollars at that time.
Previously, media reports stated that Forbes statistics showed that Buffett donated over $5.4 billion throughout 2022, bringing his total lifetime donations to $51.5 billion, making him the richest person in the United States in terms of cumulative donations. Combined with three donations in 2023 and 2024, Buffett's total lifetime donations have reached $58.812 billion.
Amend the will to hand over 130 billion assets to children for management
Buffett once publicly pledged to donate 99% of his personal wealth to charity during his lifetime or death, and has been fulfilling this commitment ever since. Since 2006, he has donated half of his Berkshire Hathaway shares, mainly to the Gates Foundation and four foundations related to the Buffett family.
On June 28, 2024 local time, Buffett revealed the latest inheritance arrangements in a rare interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Buffett stated that he has made multiple revisions to his will and has formulated his current plan after seeing the children become more mature.
In the latest arrangement, Buffett donated all remaining wealth after his death to a newly established charitable trust fund, which is jointly supervised and managed by his daughter Susan Buffett, two sons Howard Buffett, and Peter Buffett. The three of them must unanimously decide how to use the money in this foundation.
At that time, Buffett held 207963 Class A shares and 2586 Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway, worth approximately $130 billion.
In addition, in the latest interview, Buffett made it clear that he will not have money to go to the Gates Foundation after his death. According to the Gates Foundation, Buffett donated $39.3 billion to the foundation between 2006 and 2023.
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