No. of Recommendations: 2
Abel has no formal portfolio management experience and doesn’t appear to have made any significant moves with the Berkshire equity holdings other than to sell about $15 billion of stocks that were managed by former manager Todd Combs, who left for an investment role at JPMorgan Chase in December.
Berkshire investment manager Ted Weschler, 65, has responsibility for about 6% of the portfolio. Many Berkshire watchers thought he would get considerably more authority as part of the CEO transition to Abel, but he received only a small increase in the amount of stocks that he oversees.
Will Berkshire hire additional investment minds? Will Weschler get more authority over the equity portfolio? And will Buffett, who loves the markets, still make equity buys and sells?
It’s unclear now.
Who does have a proven track record of successfully managing a $600 billion plus actively-managed portfolio?
Mr Buffett has confidence in Greg. That’s good enough for me until proven otherwise (what would proven otherwise mean, though?).
I don’t think an investment committee is the solution. I like what Mr Buffett said about consensus: “I look in the mirror”.
