Charlie Munger Could Have Been Among The Big Billionaires' Club With Warren Buffett, Only If He Was Less Philanthropic

Charlie Munger, long-time business partner to Warren Buffett, could have amassed a fortune of over $10 billion if he had retained all his Berkshire Hathaway BRK BRK stocks.

As per a Business Insider report, Munger, who has been the Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway since 1978, currently owns 4,033 Class A shares of the company, valued at $2.1 billion as of Oct. 5. Despite this, Munger does not feature on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and is approximately 1,200th on Forbes’ real-time wealth rankings.

In stark contrast, Buffett consistently places within the top 10 of both lists with an estimated wealth of $116 billion.

The disparity in wealth is primarily attributed to Buffett owning a larger stake in Berkshire. However, Munger’s philanthropic endeavors have also played a part, as he has sold or donated over 75% of his Berkshire stock over the years.

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In 1996, Munger owned 18,829 A shares of Berkshire, equivalent to 1.6% of the outstanding stock. Today, this stake would be valued at approximately $10 billion. This amount would have placed him within the top 200 wealthiest individuals on both Forbes and Bloomberg’s lists.

Chris Bloomstran, president of Semper Augustus Investments and a long-time Berkshire shareholder, stated that Munger likely owned even more shares prior to 1996, due to Berkshire’s takeover of businesses he partly owned.

Munger has consistently chosen to pare down his Berkshire stake to fund his charitable giving, a decision he voiced in an interview with The Omaha World-Herald in 2013.

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