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Buffett ultimately enriched by giving

The billionaire says he would rather leave his fortune to the world's less well-off than create a family dynasty.

NEW YORK - Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor and executive, said Monday that he never seriously considered doing anything with his $44-billion fortune except giving it all away.

"I'm not an enthusiast for dynastic wealth, particularly when 6-billion others have much poorer hands than we do in life," Buffett said at the New York Public Library, where he was appearing with Bill and Melinda Gates, the only Americans richer than he is.

Buffett said on Sunday that he would give away 85 percent of his fortune - about $37.4-billion worth of stock in Berkshire Hathaway, the company he runs - to five charitable foundations, with the greatest share, about $31-billion, going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is dedicated to improving health and education, especially in poor nations.

Known as the Oracle of Omaha as much for his outspoken detachment from the usual habits and pretensions of the super-rich as for his spectacular financial success and folksy, astute investing advice, Buffett joked Monday about the attitudes he hears expressed by some others in his income bracket.

"I love it when I'm around the country club, and I hear people talking about the debilitating effects of a welfare society," he said. "At the same time, they leave their kids a lifetime and beyond of food stamps. Instead of having a welfare officer, they have a trust officer. And instead of food stamps, they have stocks and bonds."

Buffett said he's "having so much fun" running Berkshire that he prefers to have the Gates Foundation oversee much of his philanthropic legacy.

"For me to say I'm going to spend a high percentage of my time in some other area, it's just not realistic," Buffett said at an appearance with the Gateses in New York on Monday.

In addition to the Gates Foundation, charities run by each of Buffet's three children and one named for his deceased wife will receive large gifts of Berkshire stock - a total of $6.4-billion - from Buffett.

He made the gifts official on Monday morning by signing commitment letters to the five foundations. "The first three letters are easy," he said as he did so. "I just sign, 'Dad.' "

Buffett, the grandson of a grocer and the son of a stockbroker, has never made any secret of his distaste for inherited wealth, and has often said that he had no intention of making mega-heirs and heiresses of his children.

So it was not surprising that he said on Sunday that he would give away more than $37-billion of his fortune.

What was surprising, however, was that he outlined specifically what he would do with the bulk of his wealth while he was still very much alive. He had said previously that he would wait to do so in his will.

Not that his children will be left empty-handed. Buffett said that the assets he is not giving to charity Monday - about $3-billion worth - will be divided up later between other philanthropic causes and his family.

His children, he said, were not at all disappointed not to be receiving the majority of his fortune.

"They've known all along my views on inherited wealth, and share them," he said Monday.

"They have money that most people would dream of. They're lucky, in that respect, when they selected their parents."

"I think Warren will not only be known as the world's greatest investor, but the world's greatest investor for good," said Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, who recently announced his intention to leave the management of Microsoft largely to others starting in 2008 and concentrate on charitable work.

Buffett and Bill Gates met in 1991 and have become close friends and business associates since then, investing in each other's companies and often traveling together or playing bridge online.

They will appear along with Melinda Gates on the Charlie Rose program on PBS Monday evening in a joint interview.

Buffett's gift came with three conditions for the Gates Foundation: Bill or Melinda Gates must be alive and active in its administration; it must continue to qualify as a charity; and each year it must give away an amount equal to the previous year's Berkshire gift, plus another 5 percent of net assets. Buffett gave the foundation two years to abide by the third requirement.

Asked why Buffett chose the Gates Foundation as the recipient of the bulk of his wealth, he told reporters Monday, "I've got some people who can give it away better than I can."

Information from the New York Times and Bloomberg News was used in this report.

[Last modified June 27, 2006, 06:19:41]