Death, Wells Fargo, and Warren Buffett’s most ‘fun’ investment: Here are the biggest things you missed from Berkshire Hathaway’s annual gathering

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The Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway held its annual shareholder meeting on Saturday.
Buffett and Charlie Munger, Berkshire’s vice chairman, discussed Wells Fargo, potential succession plans, the current political climate, and much more.
Follow Markets Insider’s coverage of Berkshire Hathaway’s meeting.

Investors, media, and high-profile members of the investment community descended on Omaha, Nebraska, this weekend for Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting.

CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger sat on stage, and fielded questions from investors of all ages.

The event has come to be celebrated in more ways like a sporting event than a stuffy meeting of executives and the shareholders they have to answer to.

A longtime shareholder who requested anonymity submitted a question about Berkshire’s succession plans, asking if the 88-year-old Buffett and 95-year-old Munger would "ever consider having Greg and Ajit" join them on stage at future meetings so they could also be questioned about their thinking.

"That’s probably a pretty good idea, and we’ve talked about it," Buffett responded. "We have Greg and Ajit here, and any questions that anybody wants to direct to them, it’s very easy to move them over. So we thought about having four of us up here, and this format is not set in stone at all."

Aside from the succession plans, there were inquiries about Wells Fargo’s troubles, Buffett’s most "fun" investment, and unprofitable companies. Munger even doubled down on his view on bitcoin, and Buffett waded into politics.

And there were, of course, cans of Coca-Cola and boxes of See’s Candies peanut brittle sitting atop the executives’ table on stage.

Markets Insider has rounded up some of the big talking points from the meeting:

Berkshire’s earnings grew, but they didn’t incorporate Kraft Heinz

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Berkshire Hathaway reported first-quarter earnings of $21.7 billion, reflecting massive growth from last year’s $1.1 billion first-quarter loss.

But the earnings out on Saturday excluded Kraft Heinz, whose shares plunged to a record low in February after reporting earnings.

Buffett and Munger have attributed the large swings in Berkshire’s bottom line to a newly implemented accounting rule.

Buffett and Munger weighed in on Wells Fargo’s troubles

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Berkshire Hathaway is the single largest shareholder in Wells Fargo, the embattled bank still reeling from a series of scandals.

"It looks to me like Wells made some big mistakes," Buffett said when asked about Wells Fargo’s various troubles.

"They incentivized the wrong behavior," he added.

Munger said he wished former Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan, who left his post in late March, "was still there."

Buffett said more broadly, while appearing not to imply Sloan, that bank CEOs who behave badly should get hit with harsher punishment.

Buffett commented on succession plans

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It’s long been speculated that Ajit Jain and Greg Abel, vice chairmen of the board, will eventually take over Berkshire.

Still, Buffett made no explicit announcement or comment about succession plans when asked directly on Saturday.

"We thought about having four of us up here," Buffett said in response to an audience question, referring to himself, Munger, Jain, and Abel.

"This format is not set in stone at all. Charlie and I are afraid of looking bad. Those guys are better than we are. You could not have two better operating manager than Greg and Ajit."

It’s notable that Ajit answered a question at the event for the first time.

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