America’s billionaires are older than ever, with one in five already in their 80s or 90s. That doesn’t mean they are necessarily slowing down.
Warren Buffett took a seat on stage at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting for the sixtieth – and likely final time in May. He wore a red tie that matched the two cans of Coca-Cola in front of him, one Cherry and one regular. (Buffett has joked that his longevity is tied to his diet of McDonald’s, Coke, and Dairy Queen, all companies in which Berkshire has invested.)
While his voice was raspy and he hunched over a bit, the Oracle of Omaha was as sharp and unfazed as ever, answering a question about recent market turmoil. “What happened in the last…100 days…is really nothing,” he said to a crowd of some 40,000. “The day I was born, the Dow Jones was at 240. That was August 30, 1930. Between that and the low, it went from 240 to 41.” He went on to say that if people worried about whether their stocks went down 15%, they needed a “different investment philosophy” and to prepare for a “hair-curler” stock market event, which would undoubtedly happen in the next 20 years.
Then, at the very end of the four-plus hour long meeting, he dropped a bomb: Buffett announced that he’d retire as Berkshire’s CEO at the end of the year, nearly six decades to the day from when he took control of a small, struggling textile company called Berkshire Hathaway. “I will still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases,” he said, surprising even his key lieutenant Greg Abel, who was named Buffett’s successor in 2021 but didn’t know about his imminent plans.
The fact that someone as rich and successful as Buffett – he’s been on The Forbes 400 every year since the first list in 1982 and is still the 10th richest person on the planet, despite having given away more than $64 billion – chose to work for decades after the average American’s retirement age might strike some as crazy. But there are plenty of other octogenarian and nonagenarian billionaires who, like Buffett, would rather work until the day they die.
The oldest American billionaire, George Joseph, is still working at $5.5 billion (revenue) Mercury General, the insurance company he founded in the early 1960s. A flight navigator during World War II, Joseph stepped down as CEO at age 85 but still owns 35% of the publicly traded company and mans the controls at age 103 as chairman of the publicly traded firm. He is the only American billionaire over the age of 99.
Rupert Murdoch
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Media giant Rupert Murdoch, 94, stepped down as executive chairman of $8.5 billion (revenue) News Corp. almost two years ago, ceding the title to his son Lachlan, but continues to have a large presence at the company. Earlier this summer, Trump sued the elder Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal (which is owned by News Corp.) over an article the newspaper ran about a birthday card Trump allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein. At the time, the president’s lawyers reportedly pushed for Murdoch to be deposed within 15 days due to his age. According to the New York Times article on the postponement of that deadline, Murdoch had even agreed to update Trump on his health.
Murdoch, who many believe was a key inspiration for the hit TV series Succession, still doesn’t appear to have entirely figured out his own succession plans: A Nevada court last year shut down his efforts to leave control of News Corp and the parent company of Fox News solely to his eldest son, Lachlan, in an apparent effort to preserve the company’s right-wing orientation. Three of his other children, Prudence, Elisabeth, and James, are set to retain equal voting rights.
Murdoch isn’t the only nonagenarian catching heat from Trump. The president took to Truth Social in late August to argue that billionaire George Soros, 95, and “his wonderful Radical Left son” should be charged with racketeering for their supposed role in “Violent Protests.” He warned Soros and “his group of psychopaths” to be careful: “We’re watching you!” Trump wrote. Soros, who retired from his hedge fund years ago and has already given away some $23 billion in support of some of the world’s most pressing charitable causes, has long been a Democratic Party megadonor.
Altogether, there are a record 36 American billionaires who are 90 and older. Another 150 are in their 80s, including former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner and former New York City mayor and Bloomberg cofounder Michael Bloomberg. It’s impressive given that the CDC says that the average life expectancy in the US is 78.4 for all Americans and 75.8 for the nation’s men (who dominate the billionaire ranks).
Overall, only 3.8% of the US population is 80 or older, according to the 2020 census results, compared to 20% of American billionaires on our list. Why does such a larger percentage of American billionaires seem to live past 80 than the U.S. population overall? There could be a lot of reasons, including the fact that wealthy people can afford the best healthcare, personal trainers, and freshest foods.
One billionaire who passed away in June at age 102 was pretty certain why he lived so well for so long. David Murdock, the long-time majority shareholder of Dole, one of the world’s largest producers of fruits and vegetables, was a strong advocate of plant-based diets and ate only fruits (including banana and orange peels), vegetables, and fish, having publicly stated his aim to live to 125.
Murdock also donated heavily to longevity research and helped set up the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, NC, a 350-acre research center that researches ways to improve human health through nutrition. “We have developed a culture in which we eat with our taste buds, not our brains,” he told Forbes at age 90.
To find out what others believe is their secret, Forbes reached out to at least 30 billionaires over 90 and another 30 over 80. Most didn’t respond or declined to comment. One who did: Charles Koch, who, at age 89, is still actively serving as chairman and co-CEO of Koch, Inc., a diversified conglomerate and America’s second-largest private company by revenue. According to Koch, daily exercise of his mind and body is “his number one priority.” He reads and writes “extensively” and does “an hour or hour and a half strength and cardio workout daily.” Back in 2023, when he sat down in person with Forbes, he elaborated further, explaining that going to his full-time job, where he strives to solve complex problems, helps keep him sharp: “I have retired friends at the club I belong to in Palm Springs who play nine holes every morning, have lunch, and play gin all afternoon,” he said. “If I did that, I’d put a bullet in my head.”
Stock trading pioneer Joe Ricketts feels similarly, and says he still works “seven days a week,” at age 84. Industrialist Dennis Washington, who survived a bout of polio as a child, started operating heavy cranes straight out of high school before striking out on his own with a $30,000 loan. At age 91, he continues to be involved in the high-level management of his portfolio of companies, with interests in heavy equipment, copper mining, and marine transportation. “I would hope my legacy would be for people to say that ‘He lived the American dream,’” he says, describing his life as “a rags to riches story.” But he stops short of attributing his longevity to either his work ethic or exercise habits. When asked why he has lived such a long and healthy life, he jokingly responds: “Only God knows!”
America’s 10 Oldest Billionaires
1) George Joseph, age 103
Joseph founded Mercury General in the 1960s after raising $2 million in capital. The company now brings in $5.5 billion in annual revenue, offering auto, home, and fire insurance. He owns 35% of the firm and remains its chairman.
2) Alice Schwartz, age 99
Schwartz cofounded Bio-Rad Laboratories with her late husband in a UC Berkeley Quonset hut in 1952. Widowed in 2012, she stepped down from the board in 2022. Her son Norman is chairman and CEO.
3) Wilma Tisch, age 98
Tisch inherited shares of diversified holding company Loews Corporation, built by her husband and his brother. The company had over $80 billion in assets at the end of 2024.
4) Sidney Kimmel, age 97
Kimmel is the founder of apparel company Jones New York, which later added Nine West, Barney’s, and other brands to its portfolio. He stepped down as CEO in 2002 and sold the firm for nearly $2.2 billion in 2014. He then ran Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, which produced such movies as The Lincoln Lawyer (film) and The Kite Runner, until its merger with Ivanhoe Pictures in 2017.
5) Alan Gerry, age 96
Gerry is the cable TV pioneer who founded Cablevision Industries. In 1996, he sold the company to Time Warner for a reported $2.7 billion, pocketing an estimated $900 million.
6) Archie Aldis Emmerson, age 96
One of the largest landowners in the country, he and his family hold over 2.4 million acres across the U.S. He also founded Sierra Pacific Industries, the largest private lumber production firm in the nation. Though his sons now run the firm, “Red” is still a regular at the office.
7) Donald Newhouse, age 96
He inherited the publishing and broadcasting empire Advance Publications decades ago with his late brother S.I. (d. 2017). The company is still family-owned. One of its most valuable holdings is its stake in social news site Reddit.
8) Annette Lerner, age 95
In 1952, Lerner lent her husband Ted $250 to start a real estate business that grew into Lerner Enterprises, one of the largest property owners in the Washington, D.C. area. She and her children inherited Ted’s estate after his 2023 death.
9) George Soros, age 95
Born in Hungary in 1930, Soros survived the Nazi occupation and the persecution of Hungarian jews thanks to forged papers purchased by his father. After studying at the London School of Economics, he immigrated to the United States in the 1950s, where he made his fortune as a hedge fund manager.
10) Warren Buffett, age 95
The son of a U.S. congressman from Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett grew up during the Great Depression and bought his first stock at age 11. In 1970, he became the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and led its transformation into a holding company with a golden portfolio, whose investments include stakes in American Express, Bank of America, and Chevron. He is considered one of the most successful investors of all time.