Berkshire Adds ETFs to Pension Plan

Berkshire Hathaway purchased two ETFs for one of its pension plans in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to a recent article in Bloomberg.

The purchases, reported in a regulatory filing, totaled $25 million and are the firm’s only publicly recorded ETF holdings, the article reports.

“Buffett, whose Berkshire holds a record $128 billion in cash and U.S. Treasury bills, has been questioned before about why he didn’t put the firm’s unused cash into an index fund,” the article reports, although the legendary CEO has claimed that the reserves were held at the ready to “quickly deploy if the chance to strike a big acquisition arises.”

The article cites comments from Bloomberg Intelligence’s Eric Balchunas, who suggested that Berkshire’s fourth-quarter ETF purchase is “arguably the ‘ultimate endorsement’ for ETFs and their different usages,” adding, “They use it almost as a temporary parking spot, and I think the liquidity is what they’re attracted to.”