Warren Buffett Sets Up New Trust As He Turns Away From Gates Foundation

Warren Buffett has come up with a new plan for where his billions of dollars will go after his death.

Since 2006, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRKBRK has made annual gifts to the Gates Foundation (formerly known as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and four other foundations connected to the Buffett name, and he will continue doing that while he is still alive.

But that will change upon his death, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Buffett, 93, has decided that no more money will be given to the Gates Foundation after he passes away and nearly all of his remaining fortune will instead get funneled into a new charitable trust run by his daughter and two sons.

"The Gates Foundation has no money coming after my death," Buffett told the Journal.

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Buffett, who has given away more than half of his Berkshire shares since taking control of the firm in 1965 but still holds almost $130 billion in company shares, is leaving it to his children to decide unanimously what philanthropies will receive his remaining fortune after his death.

"It should be used to help the people that haven't been as lucky as we have been," he told the Journal. "There's eight billion people in the world, and me and my kids, we've been in the luckiest 100th of 1% or something. There's lots of ways to help people."

Susie Buffett, 71, lives in Omaha and chairs the Sherwood Foundation, which promotes early childhood education and social justice. She also chairs the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for her late mother, Buffett's first wife, who died in 2004.

Howie Buffett, 69 and lives in Decatur, Ill., farms and heads the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which works for food security, conflict mitigation and combating human trafficking. Both Susie and Howie Buffett serve on the Berkshire board. 

Peter Buffett, 66, a music composer living near Kingston, N.Y., and his wife, Jennifer Buffett, lead the NoVo Foundation, whose projects include working with indigenous communities. 

Berkshire said Friday that Buffett would convert 8,674 of his Class A shares into Class B shares to make another round of donations. 

The Gates Foundation Trust is receiving Class B shares worth about $4 billion as of Thursday's closing price, while the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation is receiving about $400 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The foundations of Buffett's daughter and sons are each receiving more than $280 million in shares. One Class A share carries the ownership stake of 1,500 Class B shares, and A shares have an even greater advantage in voting power. 

BRK-A Price action: Berkshire Hathaway’s shares were up 0.30% at $616,165 at publication Friday.

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