Warren Buffett, known as the Oracle of Omaha, is one of the most successful investors ever. Lessons from Warren Buffett's estate plan reveal his disciplined approach to investing, understanding of markets, and financial foresight that have made him a global icon and model of success in the often-turbulent business world.
Buffett’s investing can move markets and influence corporate decisions. Investors and business leaders worldwide closely follow his every move and hang on to his every word about the economy and investing.
However, Buffett, who eschews a family dynasty and is committed to giving his wealth away, also has lessons to teach about estate planning. His estate plan, which he updated most recently in 2024, has evolved over the years to accommodate changing circumstances while staying true to his most deeply held beliefs.
Is it time to follow Warren Buffett’s lead and revise your plan?
Warren Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1930.[1] His father, Howard Buffett, was a stockbroker and congressman[2] who provided Warren with early exposure to finance.
Buffett displayed a knack for business as a child, selling chewing gum, operating pinball machines, and delivering newspapers.[3] He bought his first stock at age 11[4] and filed his first tax return at 14.[5]
At Columbia Business School, Buffett studied under Benjamin Graham, a promoter of value investing and coauthor of the book Security Analysis,[6] which strongly influenced Buffett’s investment strategy of buying undervalued companies with strong potential for growth.[7]
Buffett’s investing rules include “Never lose money,” “Focus on the long term,” and “Know what you’re investing in.”[8] He stresses avoiding speculative investments that could lead to losses.[9]
He first applied these principles to Buffett Partnership Ltd. This investment partnership made him a millionaire by 1962 at the age of 32,[10] and later to Berkshire Hathaway, a struggling textile company that he took control of in 1965 and transformed into a vehicle for his wide-ranging investments.[11]
Today, Berkshire Hathaway has assets worth over $1 trillion.[12] It owns or has stakes in iconic companies such as Coca-Cola, Apple, Bank of America, and Kraft Heinz.[13] Buffett holds approximately 31 percent of the voting interest in Berkshire Hathaway[14] and has an estimated net worth of $140–$150 billion, placing him among the 10 wealthiest people in the world.[15]
However, Buffett’s story is as much about his humility, generosity, and openness as it is about generating personal riches through the stock market.
Despite his immense wealth, Buffett leads a modest lifestyle and has long pledged to give 99 percent of his wealth to philanthropic causes.[16] His annual letters to shareholders are a model of transparency, where he openly discusses the company’s successes and failures and shares insights into his decision-making process.[17]
Buffett, the man who has taken advantage of a long investment timeline by continually reinvesting Berkshire Hathaway’s profits to compound the interest on them, admits his timeline is nearing an end.
“I feel good but fully realize I am playing in extra innings,” he wrote in a 2023 Thanksgiving letter to shareholders.[18]
“After my death, the disposition of my assets will be an open book—no ‘imaginative’ trusts or foreign entities to avoid public scrutiny but rather a simple will available for inspection at the Douglas County Courthouse”[19] in Omaha, Nebraska, the city where he was born and still lives, in the same house he bought in 1958 before he made his first million dollars.[20]
Buffett is a trendbucker when it comes to his legacy. While many high-net-worth individuals are known for their philanthropy, few have been as vocal as Buffett about an aversion to family dynasties. Buffett has also consistently spoken about his belief in meritocracy and the potential downsides of inherited wealth, which he shares with his children and reiterated in a 2023 Berkshire Hathaway news release.[21]
“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,” he wrote.[22]
He explained in an online pledge summarizing his philanthropic intentions that he considers his incredible wealth to be essentially the result of fortunate circumstances and that it should go not to his own family, who already live comfortable lives, but to improving the health and welfare of those who, unlike him and his children, “received the short straws in life.”[23]
A large donation was made in June 2024, when Buffett announced that he had given more than $55 billion to five charities, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation,[24] named for his first wife, who passed away in 2004.
Initially, Buffett planned to leave the bulk of his wealth to Susan, trusting her to manage their charitable giving.[25] After Susan’s death, Buffett had to reevaluate his plan. He began making annual gifts to the Gates Foundation and four family foundations run by his children, marking a shift toward more direct involvement in his philanthropy.[26]
Over the years, Buffett has continued to refine his estate plan and how it will distribute his massive wealth upon his death. In keeping with his management style—a delegative, hands-off approach that empowers his executives to make decisions—he has given more discretion to his children.
“My three children are the executors of my current will as well as the named trustees of the charitable trust that will receive 99%-plus of my wealth pursuant to the provisions of the will,”[27] Buffett wrote in 2023. “They were not fully prepared for this awesome responsibility in 2006, but they are now.”[28]
However, Buffett also revealed to The Wall Street Journal in 2024 some significant changes to his estate plan. At his death, he will cease donations to the Gates Foundation, and his remaining wealth will be directed to a new charitable trust to be overseen by his children.[29] They must unanimously agree on which causes to fund and in what amount.[30] Buffett explains that he inserted the unanimous agreement provision to protect his children from being individually approached by friends, other people, or institutions and becoming “targets of opportunity” from would-be grant-seekers.[31] When a unanimous decision is required, the child approached may use the excuse of claiming that one of their siblings would disagree.
“I like to think I can think outside the box, but I’m not sure if I can think outside the box when it’s 6 feet below the surface and do a better job than three people who are on the surface who I trust completely,” Buffett said.[32]
He added that his plan provides flexibility, enabling his children to respond to any changes in laws governing taxes and foundations.[33]
However, the 94-year-old Buffett notes that his children—ages 71, 69, and 66 as of 2024—may not live long enough to distribute his wealth fully. As a result, he announced in a 2024 shareholder letter that he had selected three successor trustees.[34]
“Each is well known to my children and makes sense to all of us. They are also somewhat younger than my children,” he wrote.[35]
Buffett ends the letter with estate planning advice for parents.[36] He stresses that communicating with children now when they can understand a parent’s testamentary choices, ask questions, and give suggestions can help avoid jealousies, conflicts, and infighting later on.[37]
“When your children are mature, have them read your will before you sign it,”he wrote. “Be sure each child understands both the logic for your decisions and the responsibilities they will encounter upon your death.”[38]
We can learn many things from Warren Buffett. Part of his legacy will be how he kept things simple in both his personal and professional lives despite the complexities that come with managing one of the most enormous fortunes the world has ever seen.
For someone of extraordinary net worth, Buffett’s plan is quite ordinary. Like his investment approach, his approach to estate planning relies on a few basic principles, including flexibility and transparency, to guide his unwavering commitment to philanthropy.
You may have used or considered using Buffett’s investment advice to generate more wealth for you and your family. You can also use his estate planning strategies to inform your plan for what will happen to that wealth, whether it goes to charity, family, or a mix of the two.
Your legacy is a work in progress. Your estate plan should be, too. Continual refinement of your plan can reflect changes in your life, those of your loved ones, and circumstances beyond your control while tracking your core convictions.
To review your estate plan and make any necessary adjustments, Book a FREE Discovery Call.
[1] Thomas Johansen, Buffett, Warren (b. 1930), Encyc. of the Great Plains (2011), http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.ind.009.
[2] About the Warren Buffett Archive, Warren Buffett Archive, https://buffett.cnbc.com/about-buffett (last visited Jan. 29, 2025).
[3] Zack Guzman & Mary Stevens, Here’s how Warren Buffett hustled to make $53,000 as a teenager, CNBC Make It (Jan. 31, 2017), https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/31/heres-how-warren-buffett-hustled-to-make-53000-as-a-teenager.html.
[4] About the Warren Buffett Archive, supra note 2.
[5] Lorna Baldwin, Here is Warren Buffett’s first tax return, filed at age 14, PBS (June 26, 2017), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/warren-buffetts-first-tax-return-filed-age-14.
[6] Warren Edward Buffett, Columbia250, https://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/warren_edward_buffett.html (last visited Jan. 29, 2025).
[7] Daniel Shvartsman, Warren Buffett’s Investment Strategy, Investing Rules, and How He Made His Fortune, Investing.com (Oct. 16, 2024), https://www.investing.com/academy/trading/warren-buffett-investment-strategy-rules-fortune.
[8] Id.
[9] Sean Fisher, Warren Buffett: Is the Stock Market Rigged?, MSN, https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/these-international-coins-worth-1-million-or-more-could-be-in-your-possession/ar-BB1jzhKT (last visited Jan. 29, 2025).
[10] David Nadelle, At What Age Did Warren Buffett Become a Millionaire?, Yahoo!Finance (Apr. 4, 2024), https://finance.yahoo.com/news/age-did-warren-buffett-become-182332572.html.
[11] About the Warren Buffett Archive, supra note 2.
[12] Berkshire Hathaway, CompaniesMarketcap.com (Sept. 2024), https://companiesmarketcap.com/berkshire-hathaway/total-assets.
[13] Frank Bass, What Does Berkshire Hathaway Own?, The Motley Fool (Jan. 28, 2025), https://www.fool.com/investing/how-to-invest/stocks/what-does-berkshire-hathaway-own.
[14] Ryan Vanzo, Who Owns the Most Berkshire Hathaway Stock Besides Warren Buffett?, The Motley Fool (May 6, 2024), https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/05/06/who-owns-the-most-berkshire-hathaway-stock-besides.
[15] Warren Buffett, Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett (last visited Jan. 29, 2025).
[16] Warren Buffett, The Giving Pledge, https://givingpledge.org/pledger?pledgerId=177 (last visited Jan. 29, 2025).
[17] See Shareholder Letters, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html (last visited Jan. 29, 2025).
[18] News Release, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Nov. 21, 2023 [hereinafter 2023 News Release], https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/nov2123.pdf.
[19] Id.
[20] Joyce Chen, Warren Buffett’s Houses: Inside the Billionaire’s Long-Standing Properties, AD (June 7, 2024), https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/warren-buffetts-houses-inside-the-billionaires-properties.
[21] 2023 News Release, supra note 18.
[22] Id.
[23] Warren Buffett, The Giving Pledge, supra note 16.
[24] Berkshire Hathaway Inc. News Release, BusinessWire (June 28, 2024), https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240628425257/en.
[25] Warren Buffett’s Evolving Estate Plan, The Rational Walk (June, 28, 2024), https://rationalwalk.com/warren-buffetts-evolving-estate-plan.
[26] Letters from Warren E. Buffett Regarding Pledges to Make Gifts of Berkshire Stock, BerkshireHathaway.com, https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/donate/webdonat.html (last visited Jan. 29, 2025).
[27] 2023 News Release, supra note 18.
[28] Id.
[29] Lisa Stiffler, Warren Buffett says “no money” going to Gates Foundation after his death, GeekWire (July 1, 2024), https://www.geekwire.com/2024/warren-buffett-says-no-money-going-to-gates-foundation-after-his-death.
[30] Marcel Schwantes, Warren Buffett Has Already Announced the Beneficiaries of His Fortune After He Dies—and His Pal Bill Gates Isn’t One of Them, Inc. (Jan. 8, 2025), https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/warren-buffett-has-already-announced-the-beneficiaries-of-his-fortune-after-he-dies-and-his-pal-bill-gates-isnt-one-of-them/91104262.
[31] Berkshire Hathaway Inc. News Release, Business Wire (Nov. 25, 2024), https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241125323423/en/Berkshire-Hathaway-Inc.-News-Release.
[32] Schwantes, supra note 30.
[33] Austin B. Light & Marvin Blum, Warren Buffett’s Charitable Trust Requires His Kids’ Unanimous Consent, WealthManagement.com (Nov. 6, 2024), https://www.wealthmanagement.com/philanthropy/warren-buffett-s-charitable-trust-requires-his-kids-unanimous-consent.
[34] News Release, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Nov. 25, 2024, https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/nov2524.pdf.
[35] Id.
[36] Id.
[37] Id.
[38] Id.
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