Is the era of the benevolent billionaire really over?

Get the Full StoryWith Bill Gates signaling a wind-down of his foundation and Berkshire Hathaway s Warren Buffett retiring, philanthropy is at a crossroads.

It s feeling like the end of an era. On May 8, Bill Gates announced plans to sunset the Gates Foundation, the standard-bearing charitable organization he started with his now ex-wife Melinda French Gates 25 years ago. The foundation is set to give away more than 200 billion over the next 20 years, including virtually all of Gates s 112 billion fortune, before winding down in 2045. Gates revealed the plans shortly after longtime Foundation ally Warren Buffett announced he ll be retiring from Berkshire Hathaway this year, leaving his own 160 billion fortune to a charitable trust, which his children are to disburse within a decade of his death. Now everything s about to change.

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