Sad news out of Chicago…
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/obituaries/ct-louis-simp…
26 Likes
It’s worth re-reading the section about Mr Simpson in the 2004 annual report.
1980 to 2004 inclusive, Mr Simpson beat the S&P by 6.8%/year.
Ponder that result for a moment. As of that date, a dollar tracking him would have reached 5.2 times the portfolio value of the index.
And he wasn’t just managing chump change…it was $2.5bn in 2004, and over $4bn when he left Berkshire in 2010.
And even more, it was a pretty comfortable ride…only seven calendar years out of 25 weren’t positive double digits.
One of the best records of all time.
Jim
36 Likes
It’s interesting to me that Mr. Buffett was pretty open about how well Lou did managing the Geico portfolio but shares very little about how Todd and Ted have fared.
6 Likes
Thanks for that Mungo. He certainly was a great asset to BRK. I remember getting a good laugh at the font size of the final comment in that section. When I was going through my annual reports dating back to 1999 to see if that was the one I noticed I was missing 2000 and 2017,bummer. I hold BRK in 5 accounts - 3 cash, RRIF, TFSA, all with TD Direct so I am usually awash in annual reports. I try to give the extras to anyone I think might have an interest in them. Not many takers. Their loss.
They seem to be doing a heck of a lot more than managing money. Todd is running Geico now. Just for fun let’s say they have a great track record. What would someone pay them or what would they be worth to — you can name anyone. Or for that matter what could they do on their own? They both used to run their own firms. We are extremely lucky and fortunate to have them I believe.
13 Likes
"They seem to be doing a heck of a lot more than managing money. Todd is running Geico now.
And who was it that originally invested in Apple until Mr Copycat came along?
3 Likes