Warren Buffett has given his three children a staggering $143.1 billion task that his eldest son says is “not that easy.”
The 94-year-old chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has decided to donate his entire fortune to a charitable foundation after his death, which will be managed by his three children: Howard, 69, Susie, 71, and Peter, 66.
They will have just 10 years to allocate all the money to charities of their choice, according to the Associated Press.
“It’s not that easy to give away money if you want to do it intelligently,” said Howard, a farmer who will take over as non-executive chairman of Berkshire Hathaway following the death of his father.
“It’s quite amazing that he gave us this opportunity,” he added.
Warren Buffett has decided to donate his entire fortune to a charitable trust after his death, which will be managed by his three children.
The billionaire’s eldest son Howard (centre), who will take over as non-executive chairman of Berkshire Hathaway following his father’s death, said it was no easy task.
Howard went on to say that he and his brothers would continue to follow their father’s example and take risks, while trying to find ways to make a difference.
“I can assure you that we will sit down in a room when the time comes and we will resolve this fairly quickly,” he said.
“What this will do is bring together all of our collective experience.”
Howard also said he agrees with his father’s decision to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars.
In general, he said he believes wealthy people should give away their money over their lifetime, rather than keeping it in perpetual foundations.
Someone is going to spend that money. Someone is going to give that money away.
“That’s why I prefer to do it with my brother and sister and do it together as a partnership, rather than see it done any other way.”
He promised that he and his siblings, Susie and Peter, would sit down at the table to discuss how to allocate the estimated $143.1 billion.
It is not yet clear what organizations the brothers might donate the fortune to, but each has his own foundation through which he has donated more than $15 billion of his father’s money since 2006.
The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, of which Susie is chair of the board and Peter is a trustee, has donated $8.4 billion primarily to reproductive health care organizations.
It also funds access to abortion-based contraception, giving hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation and Population Services International, which works outside the United States.
Susie’s Sherwood Foundation has also been a major funder of early childhood education programs, and its largest beneficiary is the nonprofit Buffett Early Childhood Fund, which has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars for research, advocacy, training, and support to child care providers.
Meanwhile, the Howard G Buffett Foundation supports food security and conflict mitigation internationally.
Each of Buffett’s children has his or her own foundation, through which they have donated more than $15 billion of their father’s money since 2006.
It has partnered with Catholic Relief Services, which it has funded for at least 15 years to support farmers in Central America.
“Howard was particularly interested in addressing the factors that drove people to leave rural communities in Central America and Mexico and risk everything to migrate to the United States,” said Erica Dahl-Bredine, senior counsel for Catholic Relief Services.
“And that’s where our vision really came to fruition.”
Peter Buffett and his wife, Jennifer, have focused their grantmaking efforts on supporting girls around the world and social-emotional learning in schools.
Since 2002, however, the couple’s foundation has increased its support of Native American organizations, which the younger Buffett took an interest in after composing some of the music for the film Dances With Wolves and writing the soundtrack for the miniseries 500 Nations.
Buffett will continue to donate annually to the Gates Foundation
For now, however, Buffett will continue donate annually to the Gates Foundation – something it has done since 2006 to the tune of more than $40 billion.
He will also continue to donate to his own family’s charities. He told the Wall Street Journal In 2022, his fortune “should be used to help people who have not been as fortunate as we have.”
‘There are eight billion people in the world and my children and I have been the luckiest hundred and one percent or something like that.
“There are many ways to help people,” he added.
Buffett is currently the sixth richest person in the world, behind Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg and Bernard Arnault.
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