Buffett Gives 2.7 Million Berkshire Shares to Family Foundations and Speeds Up Lifetime Giving

Warren Buffett on November 10, 2025, converted 1,800 Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares into 2.7 million Class B shares and delivered them the same day to four family foundations, according to a Berkshire news release. In an accompanying Thanksgiving letter, the 95-year-old said he would step up the pace of lifetime gifts to his children's foundations. The move offers a rare, detailed look at how one of the largest fortunes in the country is being moved out of an estate while its owner is still alive.

What changed

The release lists 1.5 million B shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 400,000 shares each to the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation. CNBC valued the donation at more than $1.3 billion and estimated Buffett's Berkshire holdings at about $149 billion, most of it in Class A stock trading near $751,480 a share.

The letter explains the reasoning. Buffett's children are 72, 70 and 67. He wrote that essentially his entire estate is meant to be distributed by them through their foundations, and that he wants to raise the odds they finish that work before alternate trustees take over. He also said he intends to hold a significant block of A shares until shareholders are comfortable with Greg Abel, who becomes chief executive at year-end. He added that his children's foundations have gradually scaled up to disbursing more than $500 million a year, and that he has no wish to rule from the grave.

Who is affected

The scale is unique, but the planning questions are familiar to families with concentrated, highly appreciated stock and a charitable goal: whether to give during life or at death, how much control to hand to the next generation, and how to keep a company or family business stable while ownership shifts. Buffett's approach, converting a small number of high-value shares into a larger number of lower-priced shares before giving them, is also a practical detail. A single Class A share is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars; 1,800 of them became 2.7 million B shares that foundations can sell in smaller pieces.

The after-tax math

Under the law signed in July 2025, the federal estate and gift tax exemption is $15 million per person, or $30 million for a married couple, in 2026, with inflation indexing starting in 2027, according to Goodwin. Anything an estate leaves to charity is outside that calculation entirely, which is why a fortune pledged almost wholly to philanthropy has little estate tax exposure whether it is given now or later.

For living donors, the timing question turns on income tax as well. The same law changes charitable deductions for tax years starting in 2026. Itemizers may deduct gifts only to the extent they exceed 0.5% of adjusted gross income, and a new rule under Section 68 reduces itemized deductions by 2/37 of the lesser of total itemized deductions or taxable income above the start of the 37% bracket. In effect, the value of each deducted dollar for top-bracket filers is capped at about 35 cents.

Example, with round numbers: a couple in the top bracket with $2 million of adjusted gross income plans a $500,000 gift of appreciated stock.

The example ignores percentage-of-income limits and other deductions, which can change the result. Deduction rules for gifts to private foundations, the vehicle Buffett uses, also differ from those for public charities and donor-advised funds, and are worth confirming before any large transfer.

Moves to discuss with your advisor

• Whether giving appreciated shares during life fits a family's goals better than a charitable bequest, given the 2026 deduction changes.
• Who will direct family philanthropy after the founder, and whether successor trustees are named.
• Whether high-priced share classes or closely held stock should be restructured before a gift to make later sales practical.
• How a staged giving schedule interacts with the $15 million exemption for assets meant for heirs.

What to watch

Buffett said he will keep writing an annual Thanksgiving message, so future letters may show how quickly the remaining A shares move to the foundations. For other families, the more immediate deadline is December 31, 2025, the last day before the 0.5% floor and the 35% value cap on deductions take effect.

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