[DesertCat]

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There is no need to worry about the succession of Buffet afterwards.

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How do you figure?

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The value of Berkshire can be estimated by breaking it into two components, the wholly owned companies (subsidaries) and the portfolio. I'm ignoring insurance float to make this simple.

The wholly owned companies won't stop generating huge amounts of cash flow because Warren died. Sees will still sell more candies, Geico will still sell more insurance, etc, etc. In fact, I think this article demonstrates that they pretty much run themselves, and will continue the same whether he's dead or alive.

The immediate value of the portfolio won't change either. What you'll lose is the future value of Warren's stockpicking and resource allocation skills. As good as Lou Simpson is, he's no Warren Buffet.

But I think this will be offset a bit by dividending. Much cash will be sent from the co. to shareholders, which means less cash for Lou to invest. Lou with a smaller portfolio may be likely to do as well or better as Warren with an enormous portfolio.

One thing to consider is that Warren still beats the market significantly, but his edge has declined as Berkshire's size has grown. He's probably a better investor now than ever, but that huge weight of over $100B of capital to manage and invest makes his job much harder. Dividending a large portion of that cash is likely to make his successors jobs much, much, easier.