Warren Buffett gives $1.3 billion to four charities in latest letter

Buffett is expected to hand his role of CEO to his successor Greg Abel at year-end

Warren Buffett is donating more than $1.3 billion of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shares to four family foundations, as the billionaire addresses the firm’s shareholders before stepping down from his role of chief executive officer at the end of the year.

The 95-year-old investor will convert 1,800 of Berkshire’s Class A shares into 2.7 million Class B shares, the firm said in a statement Monday. He’ll then give 1.5 million of those shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late wife, and 400,000 to each of his children’s foundations, the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation.

In 2006, Buffett started making donations to the Gates Foundation, as well as to foundations tied to his children. He later started the Giving Pledge with Bill and Melinda Gates, with the objective to donate his fortune either in his lifetime or at his death. Last year, Buffett announced that the Gates Foundation wouldn’t receive any more donations after his death, with Buffett’s daughter and two sons overseeing a new charitable trust.

Buffett is expected to hand his role of CEO to his successor Greg Abel at year-end. Letters such as the one released Monday, along with the ones that accompany the firm’s annual results, have become a must-read for his fans, who seek out the pearls of wisdom, investment advice and witticisms that drew a legion of fans to the billionaire investor.

While Buffett said he will no longer write Berkshire’s annual report letter or speak at the annual meeting, he said he intended to continue to address shareholders in its traditional Thanksgiving missive.