Buffett, Who Pledges to Donate 99% of His Estate to Charity, Says "My Children Can Manage the Foundation and Live"

Three-Quarters Donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

'The Sage of Omaha,' Warren Buffett (93), Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has decided to donate over 7 trillion won to charitable foundations.

On the 28th (local time), Berkshire announced in a statement that Chairman and CEO Buffett will donate a total of $5.3 billion (approximately 7.3 trillion won) to charitable foundations. Of the 13 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares Buffett is donating, about three-quarters, or 9.93 million shares, will be given to the world's largest charitable foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Warren Buffett (center), Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway [Photo by Reuters/Yonhap]

Buffett started the 'Giving Pledge' with Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft (MS), in 2010, a commitment by wealthy individuals to donate their wealth, and since then, he has annually donated some Berkshire Hathaway shares to charitable organizations.

Buffett also donates to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and three other foundations run by his children Howard, Susan, and Peter. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation is named after his late wife who passed away in 2004 and supports maternal health-related activities. He donates 993,035 shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 695,122 Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares each to the three foundations managed by his children.

While Buffett transfers shares to the foundations managed by his children, he does not pass on management rights. In the statement released that day, he made it clear that after his death, his children should simply manage the remaining foundations. He also stated that more than 99% of his inheritance will be used for charitable activities after his death.

Previously, Buffett had declared his intention to donate most of his wealth. Since 2006, he has regularly donated assets to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and family-named foundations. Last year, he donated company shares worth $4.64 billion (approximately 6.032 trillion won) to charitable organizations.

Meanwhile, in his autobiography-like book The Snowball, Buffett detailed the reasons for deciding to donate most of his wealth. In this book, he emphasized that returning his astronomical wealth to society is only natural. He also argued that no matter how talented he was, if he had been born in an underdeveloped country rather than the United States with its developed capital markets, he would not have been able to accumulate his current wealth.