What Warren Buffett Said About Structured Settlements

John Darer • May 6, 2020

"Many, many people that in effect have staked their well-being on the promises of Berkshire to take care of them for... 50 years or longer into the future".  May 2, 2020

lifetime payments

"...at Berkshire, we keep ourselves in an extraordinary strong position. We’ll always do that—that’s just fundamental. We insure people. We’re a specialist to some extent and a leader. It’s not our main business, but we sell structured settlements. That means somebody gets in a terrible accident, usually an auto accident, and they’re going to require care for 10, 30, 50 years. 


And their family or their lawyer is wise enough, in our view, to rather than take some big cash settlement to essentially arrange to have money paid over the lifetime of the individual to take care of their medical bills, or whatever it may be. And we’re large. 


We’ve got many, many, many people that in effect have staked their well-being on the promises of Berkshire to take care of them for, like I say, I mean, 50 years or longer into the future

 

And, now, I would never take real chances with money, of other people’s money under any circumstances. 

 

I mean, every single bit of money we managed for other people was from individuals, people with faces attached to them, or entities, or money with faces attached to them. So we’ve always felt that our job is basically that of a trustee, and hopefully a reasonably smart trustee in terms of what we were trying to accomplish. But the trustee aspect has been very important. And it’s true for the people with the structured settlements. It’s true for up and down the line. But it’s true for the owners very much too. So we always operate from a position of strength


Source:  Transcript of Warren Buffett's address to shareholders at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting on May 2, 2020


Berkshire Hathaway issues structured settlement annuities through Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company of Nebraska (in all states except New York) and First Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Company (in New York).  Reinsurance structured settlements are placed through National Indemnity Company.


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