Berkshire is principally a collection of dozens of operating companies driven by its best-on-planet Insurance operations.

I'd have no problem Indexing the stock portfolio or mirroring it as best as possible over time given the obvious tax consequences. Or if we want to keep what we got intact--that's OK. It's just not the key for Berkshire going forward imo. I don't think stocks will be a lot smaller than cash--as they are now. But they will NOT be nearly as important as in the past. I'll take being in the top 1/4th or 1/5th or so where the index or index hugging gets you.

THE KEY DRIVERS: Insurance float will continue to provide cheaper than free cost leverage -and the op cos, if run effectively should, hopefully, marginally outperform the index. That should be Abels focus and he's the right guy at the right time!. Thats the hope and really that's what matters in the Berkshire that Buffett has designed this century.

Overall, I think we can top the index by a couple points longer term, with far less risk that a stocks-only portfolio. If we only match the index with the risk profile I'm assuming--I'll be OK with that.

Remember what Warren says is the key to happiness? Low expectations.