Warren Buffett Steps Down as Insurance Giant Berkshire Hathaway’s Chairman

Global Insurance Desk: Warren Buffett has stepped down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, effective immediately, completing a carefully planned leadership transition at the sprawling conglomerate he built over six decades. The 96-year-old investor will become chairman emeritus and remain on the board as a director, while his son Howard Buffett takes over as chairman.

In a letter to shareholders Buffett said the timing felt right. Greg Abel, who formally assumed the role of chief executive at the start of 2026, has settled into the job and is running the company without second-guessing from the founder. Howard Buffett’s task, his father wrote, will be to guard Berkshire’s distinctive culture and values, something Buffett described as more valuable than anything on the balance sheet.

Howard has served on the Berkshire board since 1993. The change leaves the day-to-day strategy and capital allocation firmly in Abel’s hands, with the younger Buffett focused on preserving the decentralized, long-term approach that defined the company under his father.

Berkshire remains one of the most important forces in the global insurance industry. Its operations include GEICO, a large primary insurance group and a substantial reinsurance business. Those units continue to generate strong underwriting earnings that provide the float Buffett long used to fund investments across the rest of the empire. In the second quarter alone the insurance operations produced more than two billion dollars in pre-tax underwriting profit.

The succession had been telegraphed for years, yet the formal handover of the chairman’s role still marks the end of an era. Buffett built Berkshire from a struggling textile firm into a trillion-dollar enterprise that spans insurance, railroads, energy, manufacturing and consumer brands. He will continue to offer perspective as a director, but the operational and cultural leadership now rests with Abel and Howard Buffett.

The announcement was made in a letter to shareholders released on September 18.