Buffett Passes Berkshire Baton to Abel, Plans Thanksgiving Tradition

In a move to transition Berkshire Hathaway's leadership, Warren Buffett has announced that starting next year, Greg Abel will be writing the annual meeting letter to shareholders and answering questions at the annual meeting. Buffett, who has led the company for decades, plans to sit on the arena floor with the other directors.

However, Buffett assures shareholders that he will continue communicating with them and his children through his annual Thanksgiving message. This year's letter was longer than usual, covering topics like the importance of luck, getting old, and his admiration for Berkshire shareholders.

Buffett also revealed a surprising anecdote from his childhood, when he received a fingerprint kit and proceeded to take prints from the nuns caring for him, believing that "someday a nun would go bad, and the FBI would find that they had neglected to fingerprint nuns."

The newsiest bit was Buffett's plan to "step up the pace of lifetime gifts" to the three foundations run by his children, who are now in their 70s and 60s. He wants to "improve the probability that they will dispose of what will essentially be my entire estate before alternate trustees replace them."