even Warren Buffett will put his money into indexed fund ETF after he die
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) Chairman Warren Buffett gave the company an
endorsement in March in his annual letter to shareholders. Buffett said he
told the trustee managing his affairs that after his death he wanted 90
percent of the cash he leaves for his wife put into a very low-cost Standard
& Poor’s 500 Index fund.
“I suggest Vanguard’s,” he wrote. The results are likely to be “superior
to those attained by most investors -- whether pension funds, institutions
or individuals -- who employ high-fee managers.”
The firm’s Vanguard 500 Index Fund tracking the U.S. benchmark took in four
times as much money this year from March through June as it did in the same
period in 2013, a surge the company attributed to Buffett’s backing.
Vanguard, like other asset managers, has also attracted some of the cash
that investors pulled from Pacific Investment Management Co. since the
surprise resignation of co-founder Bill Gross on Sept. 26. Gross’s $170.9
billion Pimco Total Return Fund lost $51 billion to redemptions in the past
two months.