Greg Abel will take over as CEO of Berkshire at the end of 2025, but he won’t be the one making decisions about its $275 billion stock portfolio.
Warren Buffett is stepping down after running the company for 60 years, and while he’s staying on as chairman, the day-to-day leadership is changing.
Greg, who’s currently in charge of the company’s non-insurance operations, will be leading everything else—including acquisitions and overall capital allocation—but not stock picking. That responsibility won’t land on his desk, and that decision is already raising questions across Berkshire’s massive shareholder base.
David Kass, a Berkshire shareholder and professor at the University of Maryland, said, “As CEO, Greg’s primary role will be to allocate capital. He will be deciding on the acquisition of entire companies, but I do not believe he will be picking stocks.” Kass had previously hosted private student lunches with Warren, so he’s not just talking out of his ass.
Weschler and Combs take control of the stock portfolio
Instead of Greg, that part of Berkshire’s machine will likely stay with Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. They’ve both been quietly managing about $15 billion each of the portfolio for years.
The exact returns haven’t been disclosed recently, but Warren tied their pay to performance, specifically 10% of the excess over the S&P 500’s three-year rolling average. They haven’t exactly crushed the market in recent years, but they’ve been doing enough to stay in the game … and they’ve got history.
Combs is also CEO of Geico, the biggest piece of Berkshire’s insurance division. He’s not just some spreadsheet nerd. He’s got his hands deep in the firm’s core businesses. Weschler, meanwhile, joined Berkshire in 2012 after dropping millions to win two charity lunches with Warren. That got him a role managing money inside the empire. He’d previously launched Peninsula Capital Advisors in 1999 and delivered a 1236% total return before shutting it down in 2011. That’s not made-up hype. It’s real numbers.
Weschler also turned his personal retirement account from $70,000 into $260 million in under 30 years. That’s not just luck. But even with that record, a Financial Times analysis claims both him and Combs underperforming Warren and the market recently.
So yeah, they’re not legends, but they’re still the most likely ones to handle Berkshire’s stocks after Warren’s gone. Catherine Seifert, an analyst at CFRA, said she expects Berkshire to introduce a chief investment officer role to handle its portfolio.
“Our view of Greg is of someone with a solid operational background, but not the investment experience or expertise to replace a renowned investor like Warren Buffett,” said Seifert. “We think a lack of clarity on this issue could weigh on the shares.” She also floated Weschler as the one who could potentially fill that CIO job.
Warren had said, “The decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine.” His exit also follows the death of Charlie Munger, his business partner, who passed away in 2023.
Earlier this year, Warren told shareholders he’s using a cane and admitted that it “won’t be long” before Greg writes the company’s annual letter.
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