Warren Buffett reveals: "My wife's inheritance will be invested in one thing only"
The legendary investor, who retired earlier this year from managing Berkshire Hathaway and passed the baton to his successor Greg Abel, instructed the trustee of his wife's funds to invest almost all the money in one thing. What does the man who beat the market for six decades recommend his wife do - and what does it mean for investors?
Warren Buffett, the 95-year-old founder and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is leaving behind a massive fortune, but he asks that the portion remaining for his wife be invested in the simplest way possible.
In a letter to shareholders back in 2013, Buffett revealed the instruction he wrote in his will: the trustee who will manage his wife's funds should deposit 90% of them in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund (he cited Vanguard as an example), and the remaining 10% in short-term government bonds.
Buffett's logic has been consistent for years. At the 2021 shareholders' meeting, he simply said that he believes the average person is incapable of picking stocks, and therefore it is better for them to stick to a broad, cheap index and hold it over time.
The idea: an index fund does not guarantee beating the market, but it captures market returns while avoiding high management fees - and that, over decades, is what makes the difference. In 2025 alone, the S&P 500 index rose by about 16.4%, and with dividends, about 17.9%. It is important to put things in perspective: this instruction concerns less than 1% of Buffett's wealth. The rest, nearly 99.5%, he designates for philanthropy.
Buffett's wife is Astrid Menks, a Latvia native whom he married in 2006 (his first wife, Susan, passed away in 2004). Given the size of the capital, even a sharp drop in the stock component will not fundamentally change her financial situation, which is why Buffett can afford an "aggressive" 90% stock allocation, which is not necessarily suitable for the average saver approaching retirement.
Buffett announced in May 2025 that he would retire as CEO by the end of the year, and on January 1, 2026, his successor Greg Abel took office. Buffett remained chairman. In the last letter he wrote as CEO, in November 2025, he announced the acceleration of the transfer of his wealth: about 1.35 billion dollars in B shares were transferred to four family foundations managed by his three children.
He explained that he was in a hurry because his children are already at an advanced age (72, 70, and 67), and wrote to them that there is no need to "perform miracles." His personal wealth is estimated at about 149 billion dollars, the tenth in the world according to Forbes.
The successor did not waste time. In the first quarter of 2026, 16 positions were liquidated, the investment in Alphabet (Google) was tripled, and Delta Air Lines returned to the portfolio - a symbolic step, as Buffett himself abandoned the aviation sector during the COVID-19 crisis.
In the second quarter, Abel continued the line: Berkshire became a net buyer of stocks for the first time in 14 quarters. It increased its stake in Alphabet again (including a 10 billion dollar investment in a private placement and another 7 billion in the open market), and cut more than 50% of its holding in steel manufacturer Nucor. At the same time, a new position was opened in homebuilder D.R. Horton, and the cash pile remained huge, about 365 billion dollars.
Buffett's message is particularly relevant in Israel, where hundreds of thousands of savers have moved their training funds and provident funds to S&P 500 tracks in recent years. Buffett provides a double reminder here: first, that low management costs are a huge cumulative advantage over time, and second, that such a high allocation to stocks is suitable mainly for those whose investment horizon is long and whose ability to absorb losses is high.
Buffett himself has warned more than once that Berkshire stock has fallen by 50% three times in the past, and an index fund is not immune to that. For those who are close to retirement or need money in the short term - that is exactly what the 10% bond component is for.
