Buffett is accelerating donations to his family foundation by donating Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B.US) stocks! He plans to divest his holdings over the next 8 years, marking the first time in 20 years that the Gates Foundation will not receive donations from him.

The investment master Warren Buffett, who is 95 years old, is accelerating the pace of donating shares to the charitable organizations managed by his three children. This move could potentially allow him to completely divest all his holdings in Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A.US, BRK.B.US) within the next eight years. However, there was a notable change in the future donation plan announced this time: for the first time in twenty years, Buffett has decided to skip the mid-year donation to the Gates Foundation and has not included it in the list of organizations to receive his donations in the future. This decision follows a recent public controversy earlier this year when the US Department of Justice released a batch of documents that once again sparked public scrutiny of the close relationship between Bill Gates and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Family foundations are the main recipients, with children managing independently According to an official statement released on Tuesday, Buffett plans to donate 1 million shares of Berkshire Class B stock (BRK.B) to each of the three charitable organizations independently run by his three children the Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation. In addition, he will also donate 9 million shares of Class B stock to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation named after his late wife. "Of course, life is uncertain, but in any case, all my remaining shares will be donated to these four foundations by December 31, 2034," Buffett stated in the declaration. "Our goal is to gradually increase the annual allocations to the foundations managed independently by my three children, with a slightly faster increase in allocations to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation." Buffett had stated last year that he wanted to accelerate his charitable donations to these foundations so that his children could more easily handle his large estate after his passing. In fact, about a year ago, the Berkshire Chairman had already donated shares worth about $320 million to each of the three foundations, and then pledged to make an additional donation of approximately $200 million to each organization later that same year. Stock ownership and donation mechanism Regulatory filings show that Buffett currently holds 188,290 shares of Berkshire Class A stock (BRK.A) and 1,162 shares of Class B stock. According to Berkshire's charter, the high-voting Class A shares can be converted into Class B shares at a ratio of 1:1500 at any time. In order to fulfill the commitment to donate a total of 12 million shares of Class B stock, Buffett may only need to convert his 8,000 shares of Class A stock. Pausing additional donations or waiting for external review results The decision not to include the Gates Foundation in this round of donations is widely believed to be related to the Epstein controversy. According to previous reports, the Gates Foundation had already commissioned an external organization to review their past interactions with Epstein, and planned to reassess and revise policies for screening new charitable partners. Sources revealed that Buffett will temporarily suspend all additional donation plans to the foundation until the results of this review are finalized.