Warren Buffet’s right hand is dead

Munger was Buffett’s right-hand man for almost 60 years, and deputy chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He lived to be 99 years old.

He died on Tuesday at a hospital in California, writes Birkshire Hathaway in a press release, shortly after the close of trading on Tuesday.

Together with Buffet, they built up Berkshire Hathaway Inc. from being a failed textile factory in the 60s to becoming one of the world’s largest financial empires.

“Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its current status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation,” Buffett said in the press release.

Annual return of 20 percent

Munger was one of Berkshire’s largest shareholders, with shares valued at around $2.1 billion per share. March 2, 2022. His total net worth was around $2.5 billion at the beginning of 2023, writes Bloomberg.

Munger, who was trained as a lawyer, designed with Buffet a philosophy for how they should invest long-term in various companies.

Under their leadership, Berkshire achieved an average annual gain of 20.1 percent from 1965 to 2021—almost double that of the S&P 500 index.

Together they became billionaires and admired investors in financial circles around the world. Although he never rivaled Buffett in terms of worldwide celebrity status, Munger’s straight-talking manner earned him a large following.

– Unique

The obituary, reproduced by Bloomberg, states that Munger was an outspoken man who was not afraid to criticize the company’s businesses. Among them, he accused managing directors, who gave themselves large compensation packages, of being “immoral”.

“I love his ability to just cut to the heart of things and not care how he says it,” said Cole Smead, chief executive of Smead Capital Management, a longtime firm under the Berkshire umbrella. “In today’s society, it’s a really unique thing.”

Munger called Bitcoin “noxious poison” and defined cryptocurrency as “part fraud and part delusion.”

Munger himself, like Buffet, was an active philanthropist. Bloomberg writes that he, with his donations, worked to promote abortion rights and education. He served as chairman of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.