Buffett talks succession plan, pays tribute to Munger at annual meeting

Warren Buffett discussed his succession plans for Berkshire Hathaway and paid tribute to his longtime business partner and friend Charlie Munger at the conglomerate’s annual meeting Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska.

Buffett, 93, appeared alongside Vice Chairman Greg Abel, 61, and Vice Chairman Ajit Jain, 72, and answered roughly five hours of questions posed by Berkshire Hathaway shareholders from around the world. It marked the 60th meeting Buffett has held since he took over the company in 1965, and the billionaire was energetic in his responses despite having handed off many responsibilities to Abel and Jain.

“I don’t really do much, and I don’t operate at the same level of efficiency that I would have 30 or 40 years ago,” Buffett said. “When you’ve got somebody like Greg and Ajit, why settle for me? It has worked out extremely well.

“The number of calls I get from managers is essentially awfully close to zero, and Greg is handling those. I don’t know quite how he does it, but we’ve got the right person, I can tell you that,” he added. Buffett said he feels “fine” but joked he shouldn’t take on four-year employment contracts.

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In reference to Berkshire Hathaway’s future capital allocation decisions, Buffett said, “If I were on that board and making that decision, I would probably, knowing Greg, I would leave the capital allocation to Greg. He understands businesses extremely well, and if you understand businesses you understand common stocks.”

Abel, who was designated to eventually succeed Buffett as Berkshire CEO in 2021, said, “As we go through any transition, it’s important to know that the capital allocation principles that Berkshire lives by today will continue to survive Warren.”

Jain also weighed in and noted that he, as head of Berkshire’s insurance business, isn’t irreplaceable and that Apple CEO Tim Cook’s succession of Steve Jobs showed that no executive – even those as iconic as Buffett or Jobs – is irreplaceable.

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Buffett also paid tribute to the late Charlie Munger, who died in November at the age of 99, hailing him as the “architect of today’s Berkshire.”

“The architect is the person who dreams of and designs and finally supervises the construction of great structures. The carpenters and the beavers — that’s me — are needed, but the architect is the genius of Berkshire,” Buffett said. He added that Munger’s design “lives beyond his lifetime and will live far beyond mine.”

The company kicked off the meeting with a tribute video of the two friends who first met in 1959 and spent decades working together. It also sold copies of Munger’s book, “Poor Charlie’s Almanack,” a collection of Munger’s wit and wisdom, at the convention.

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“Charlie, in all the years we worked together, not only never once lied to me, ever, but he didn’t even shape things so that he told half lies or quarter lies to sort of stack the deck in the direction he wanted to go,” Buffett said.

Given the prominence of succession and tributes to Munger’s legacy at the first annual meeting since his friend’s death, Buffett also spoke broadly about his outlook on life.

“You don’t know where the paths of life go. You can’t beat yourself up. You try and do the things important to you. I enjoy managing money for the people who trust me. I like the feeling of being trusted. I am not looking to change much. I believe in trying to find what you’re good at and what you enjoy. I think the one thing you can aspire to be is be kind,” Buffett said.

“Thank you very, very much for coming, and I not only hope that you come next year. But I hope that I come next year,” Buffett joked to the packed arena at the end of the question-and-answer session.

Reuters contributed to this report.