Life after Buffett Looks Good for Berkshire

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Berkshire Hathaway shareholders should feel reassured to see younger executives stepping up as retirement looms for chairman and CEO Waren Buffett, said David Kass, a Berkshire investor and finance professor at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. "Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, the two stock pickers Mr. Buffett hired a few years ago as part of his succession plan, have performed well for most of their time at Berkshire," Kass told the Wall Street Journal this week. "The two also have negotiated on behalf of Berkshire a lot of tax-advantaged transactions, and they are on the same page as Mr. Buffett. Mr. Combs, for instance, handled the complex deal last year involving the swapping of Procter and Gamble Co. shares owned by Berkshire for battery maker Duracell.”

Kass and faculty colleague Elinda Kiss will accompany Smith finance students –- for the sixth consecutive year — to Berkshire’s shareholder meeting May 2, 2015, in Omaha, Neb. Kass said part of Buffett's succession plan includes efforts to preserve the corporate culture. Buffett’s legacy “is unique and ingrained in Berkshire,” Kass said. "(Buffett, Combs and Weschler) evaluate how businesses will do over the next five, 10 and 20 years. They have lunch once a week and learn from each other.” Buffett, 84, also will make sure his successors inherit a financially stable group of companies. “He has $60 billion on his balance sheet, and should there be another financial crisis in the near future, he can, in effect, be the lender of last resort,” Kass said.

“His successor will do just fine,” Kass told CNBC in March. Aijit Jain, 63, is the "first choice" unless Buffett remains at the helm another five years. Then the younger Greg Abel, 52, would have an edge.

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