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On June 28, local time, the Wall Street Journal published an exclusive interview with Warren Buffett, the "God of Stocks" and a famous American investor, revealing Buffett's latest estate arrangement. Buffett said he currently owns about $130 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock. After his death, it will be managed by his daughter and two sons for the newly formed foundation, which will focus on philanthropy.
In an exclusive interview, Warren Buffett said that he made his current legacy giving plan because of a decision he made after seeing his children become more mature. He made it clear that the Gates Foundation will not receive any donations after his death.
Warren Buffett once announced at the age of 90 that he would donate more than 99% of his wealth to charity. Regarding this decision, a reporter asked at the time, will they be disappointed that such a large amount of wealth has not been left to their children? He replied: "I have given my children the most precious gift. Money is just a string of meaningless numbers, and a happy and abundant life can only be lived until you have an optimistic, confident, courageous, and thoughtful character. ”
According to public information, since 2006, Buffett has continued to donate Berkshire stocks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Buffett family philanthropy, and has donated about $43 billion to the Gates Foundation, and this Friday, he also announced a donation of $4 billion to the Gates Foundation.
In this regard, some netizens said that Warren Buffett has donated half of his wealth, and the rest of the money is normal even if he does not donate. However, Buffett's children also strictly follow the relevant regulations and principles when managing these charitable trusts, ensuring that every penny goes to true philanthropy.
Warren Buffett's estate has sparked deep thinking about philanthropy, family, and wealth inheritance.
Charitable trust refers to the financial sector in which assets are used for charitable purposes through the establishment of trust funds. Its main purpose is to preserve and manage assets for philanthropic causes, ensuring that these funds are used to support charitable projects and social good causes. These trust funds can be used to support various charitable projects such as education, medical care, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection, which are of great significance to social welfare undertakings. The culture of philanthropy has always been an important part of Chinese civilization. In China, the charitable trust industry is also on the rise.
China's trust business is divided into three categories: asset service trusts, asset management trusts, and charitable trusts, with a total of 25 business types. Among them, charitable trusts belong to charitable trusts.
Since 2016, the number of filings of charitable trusts in China has shown a rapid growth trend. In 2016, there were only 22 orders, but by 2023, it has increased to 1,655 orders, with an average annual compound growth rate of 85.38%. The number of new filings in 2019 exceeded 100, in 2022 more than 300, and in 2023 there were 454 new filings.
As of the end of 2023, Zhejiang Charitable Trust has the largest cumulative filing amount, reaching 1.889 billion yuan, accounting for 28.97% of the country.
In 2021, the layout of charitable trust institutions in mainland China showed a new trend. Ping An Trust released the first carbon neutrality-themed charitable trust in China, opening up a new business area for the layout of green financial products in mainland China. At the same time, AVIC Trust has adopted the charitable trust + family trust model and launched the Junzi Partner Charitable Trust. The specific layout of the institution is as follows:
Fu Changbo, director of the Research Center for Social Governance and Public Communication at Beijing Normal University and director general of the Family Style Inheritance and Charitable Trust Committee of the China Charity Federation, said that at present, philanthropy in mainland China has shifted to a new stage of equal emphasis on demand and donor services, and is no longer driven only by charitable needs. Charitable trusts not only have a more flexible naming method, but also enable the sustainable development of charitable assets, and even become a spiritual carrier for the donor's family inheritance.
Cai Jie, chief economist of the China Trust Association, pointed out that charitable trusts do not have mandatory requirements for expenditures, and expenditures can be stipulated in charitable trust contracts. He believes that this is the biggest advantage of charitable trusts. In particular, after the establishment of a family equity charitable trust, the equity of the family enterprise is not used as the principal, and a small part of the income is used for the living arrangements of family members, and most of the income is used for social welfare undertakings. This method should become an important means to help common prosperity, and fair distribution on the basis of expanding the economic cake should become an important direction for the development of charitable trusts in the future.
As an emerging philanthropic model, the charitable trust industry has a promising prospect, which not only has the characteristics of charitable affairs management, but also integrates the advantages of financial services, and has a unique competitive advantage in the way of charitable participation. This dual nature makes charitable trusts have a broad development prospect and are expected to become an important part of the philanthropic industry in the future.
Prospective Economist APP Information Group
For more research and analysis of this industry, please refer to the "China Trust Industry Market Prospect and Investment Strategic Planning Analysis Report" by Qianzhan Industry Research Institute
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