Charlie Munger, investing genius and Warren Buffett's right-hand man, dies at age 99

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Billionaire Charlie Munger, the investing sage who made a fortune even before he became Warren Buffett's right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway, has died at age 99.

Munger died Tuesday, according to a press release from Berkshire Hathaway. The conglomerate said it was advised by members of Munger's family that he peacefully died this morning at a California hospital. He would have turned 100 on New Year's Day.

«Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie's inspiration, wisdom and participation,» Buffett said in a statement.

In addition to being Berkshire vice chairman, Munger was a real estate attorney, chairman and publisher of the Daily Journal Corp., a member of the Costco board, a philanthropist and an architect.

In early 2023, his fortune was estimated at $2.3 billion — a jaw-dropping amount for many people but vastly smaller than Buffett's unfathomablefortune, which is estimated at more than $100 billion.

During Berkshire's 2021 annual shareholder meeting, the then-97-year-old Munger apparently inadvertently revealed a well-guarded secret: that Vice Chairman Greg Abel «will keep the culture» after the Buffett era.

Munger, who wore thick glasses, had lost his left eye after complications from cataract surgery in 1980.

Munger was chairman and CEO of Wesco Financial from 1984 to 2011, when Buffett's Berkshire purchased the remaining shares of the Pasadena, California-based insurance and investment company it did not own.

Buffett credited Munger with broadening his investment strategy from favoring troubled companies at low prices in hopes of getting a profit to focusing on higher-quality but underpriced companies.

An early example of the shift was illustrated in