Warren E. Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway, which is the parent of GEICO Corp., has announced he will donate the bulk of his shares in the company to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMG).

In a "Dear Bill and Melinda" letter, dated Friday, Mr. Buffett said he admires the work of their foundation and wants to help expand their activities. He plans to give BMG about $31 billion of his $44 billion fortune.

Mr. Buffett plans to donate 85 percent of his stock to five foundations with 83 percent of it going to BMG, which with $30 billion is already the world's largest philanthropic organization.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.