Berkshire investors mull life after Buffett

OMAHA -- Warren Buffett tried to reassure his shareholders Saturday that Berkshire Hathaway will be fine once he is gone, but the 77-year-old billionaire offered few new details of the company's succession plan.

Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger may have done more to reassure the roughly 31,000 shareholders at the company's annual meeting.

"Well, we still have a rising young man here named Warren Buffett," Munger said, to which Buffett joked that everyone seems young to the 84-year-old Munger.

Munger continued: "I think we want to encourage this rising young man to reach his full potential."

Several shareholders still asked about the succession plan and Berkshire's future.

Part of the reason why Michel Paquet and Lorie Armstrong made their second trip to the annual meeting from Calgary, is that they're not sure how many more meetings will feature both Buffett and Munger.

"I will expect some volatility on the transition, but I'm ready for that," said Paquet, who plans to hold his Berkshire stock for many years to come.

To replace Buffett, Berkshire plans to split his job into three parts — chief investment officer, chief executive officer and chairman.

In his letter to shareholders, Buffett said the company's board has three internal candidates for CEO and four external candidates who could take over managing the company's $75 billion stock portfolio and $35.6 billion cash.

Buffett said any one of the three CEO candidates and any one of the four CIO candidates could step in and do some things better than he does. "There will be no gap after my death in terms of having someone managing the money," he said.

Buffett has refused to publicly identify the candidates, but he has said previously that after he dies his son will take over as chairman to ensure Berkshire's culture is preserved. Howard Buffett already serves on the board.

Buffett plans to visit Europe this month as part of an effort to make sure business owners there know about Berkshire, so they think about calling the American giant when they consider selling their companies.