Why Warren Buffett Really Cut Off His Granddaughters

The story of Warren Buffet’s Adopted Twin Granddaughters

Slipseed and Erica Buffett. Image author

Warren Buffett’s frugality is a thing of legend. He’s lived in the same house for over 60 years. He drives himself around town in a Lincoln worth fifty thousand dollars and he eats a Big Mac once a week for lunch.

As of December 2020 his net worth is estimated around 86.5 billion USD¹. That’s after giving half of his money to charity.

The three Buffett children were given 90k in 1977. The money wasn’t from Warren, it was their inheritance from the sale of their grandfather’s farm after he passed. This is the only money Warren has acknowledged giving to his children besides Christmas gifts².

Warren gave his children their inheritance in Berkshire Hathaway stock. If any of his children held on to the stock, it would be worth over 200 million today.

None of them kept the stock. They needed the money.

Warren Buffett likes to tell the story about how he turned down his daughter’s request for a $41,000 loan to improve her kitchen.

“I asked for a loan to expand the kitchen so I could fit the highchair in when my daughter was born, and he said ‘Go to the bank and do it like everyone else,’”⁶

How would you feel if your father was the richest man in the United States and wouldn’t let you borrow the equivalent of less than a penny to him? Warren Buffet has given away over 60 Billion to charities. Yet his granddaughter can’t afford her own health insurance and Grandpa Warren doesn’t care.

Ryder was and still is one of my closest friends. He’s a martial arts expert and we both loved attending music festivals. It was inevitable that he would get into doing fire performances.

Ryder was and is a handsome dude. While I was no slouch, I had to try to meet women. Ryder could have been an arrogant jerk and he’d be fighting them off. He’s not a jerk, he’s a solid dude.

Ryder had started dating a fellow fire performer. He wanted me to come to his troupe’s practice to meet her but mostly be the guy who stands ready with the fire extinguisher.

He introduced me. Her fire name was Windbreaker or something. She seemed nice. Warm and genuine. Great smile. Typical pretty hippy chick.

They both spun fire at the end of martial arts weapons with their troupe for a couple of hours while I stood ready with a fire extinguisher. It was uneventful. No one set themselves on fire that night.

I chatted with some of the other performers I knew as the practice winded down. After she extinguished her poi balls and he his chain whip, we left.

Her non fire name was Erica. We decided to stop for beer to bring beer back to her house when I learned she had two single female roommates. I followed her Subaru Outback to the liquor store.

We picked out our drinks and I went to pay.

Erica insisted. I insisted back but she had already handed the clerk her odd looking card.

“Wait, Was that an American Express Black card?” I thought.

I’d never seen one before so I wasn’t sure.

Nah, couldn’t be. We continued to her place.

We were sitting around talking, drinking beer. Erica told a story about the time she took the jet to France for the weekend. It was a good thing her family body guard was with with her because...

“Maybe it was an American Express Black she handed the clerk.”

“Hold up.” I interrupted. “Who the hell are your parents?”

“It’s not so much my parents as my Grandparents. Well, grandfather. My last name is Buffett…”

I think she could tell by my expression there was no need to elaborate.

Left Myself and Ryder. Right Ryder and Erica. Photos from author’s private pictures

Warren Buffet has three children. He makes it well known that he claims to not help any of them financially. From what I saw this was true.

He has also stated that he intends on giving his children no inheritance.

Erica and her twin sister Nicole were adopted by Peter Buffett, Warren’s youngest child. Peter married the identical twins mother Mary Buffett when the girls were 4 years old and legally adopted them shortly after.

Peter was married to Mary Buffett for 12 years before they divorced in 1993. Though Mary’s twin daughters were from a previous relationship, Erica and Nicole still call Peter “Dad”. He’s the only father they’ve ever known and they are his daughters.

“You need to not mess this one up.” I said to Ryder later after leaving her house.

“She’s okay. Why do you say that?” Ryder asked.

“Did you not hear her say who her grandfather is?”

“Yeah, Buffet. He wrote a song about a cheeseburger. Big whoop. Why? You want free tickets?”

I face palmed and shook my head, “Her grandfather isn’t Jimmy Buffet. Warren Buffett? Second richest man in america?”

“Oh. So what?” He said.

And that’s what she liked about him. I found my own girl and we all hung out together for a summer. Going to parties, the beach, and where ever life took us. Their relationship ended after a few months. Adhering to the bros-before-heiresses rule, that was the end of me talking to Erica Buffett as well.

Being the child or grandchild of notable people isn’t always what you think. I am also descendant of notable people. My father was a member of the original Mickey Mouse Club and shared the silver screen in the 1950’s with Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.

What did that mean for Erica and I? Not much. Not all parents help their children financially after they become adults.

Warren Buffett’s life philosophy manifested into a fanatical devotion to live like regular people. His public image as Joe Everyday is carefully crafted. His children went to public schools. When they were old enough to drive, they shared the family car.

While his brother and sister bought cars and houses with their inherentence, Peter used the money to buy time. He was a starving artist for the first decade of his career. The money allowed him to focus on his passion which was music.

Peter Buffett lived in poverty in a tiny apartment in San Francisco for almost a decade. He drove a beat up car while his father on average made millions a day.

His first major success was writing the score for the fire dance scene from Dances With Wolves. He is a New York Times Best Selling Author for his book Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment.

Peter composed the score of 500 Nations that won him an Emmy Award for best score. The documentary is the history of the First Nation peoples.

For a time Warren Buffet treated his adopted grandchildren like they were his own. However in 2006, Erica’s twin Nicole appeared in Johnson & Johnson heir Jamie Johnson’s documentary, The One Percent, about rich kids.

Nicole didn’t do the movie to trash her adopted family. She’s an artist. Her friend asked her to be in an independent movie she was making. A work of art.

While the rest of the Buffet family kept a low profile, Nicole went on the talk show circuit to promote her new film. Her father supported her decision, but warned her that Warren was unlikely to share in his sentiment.

A month later, the mega-billionaire mailed Nicole a letter in which he cautioned her about the pitfalls of the Buffett name: “People will react to you based on that ‘fact’ rather than who you are or what you have accomplished.”

He punctuated the letter by declaring, “I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin.” Nicole was devastated. “He signed the letter ‘Warren,’” she says. “I have a card from him just a year earlier that’s signed ‘Grandpa.” ³

In Warren’s first wife, Susan Buffett’s will, Nicole and Erica were both referred to as “adored grandchildren.” And left them $100,000 each. She added that the identical twins “shall have the same status and benefits … as if they were children of my son, Peter A. Buffett.”⁴

Warren Buffett felt otherwise.

In 2006 Warren announced that he would be giving away most of his money to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and to Charities run by his three children. Warren split almost a billion dollars between his children to found their own charities.⁵

As of the end of 2019 he’d given away half of his money. He intends to give away almost everything. In 2020 Warren Buffett made 20 billion dollars.

Peter might not be Erica and Nicole’s biological father, but make no mistake, he is their father. He raised those girls. They call him dad and still have a great relationship with him. It has nothing to do with money and everything to do with him being their dad.

Peter could not have been too happy with the letter Warren sent Nicole. In the movie she appeared in she didn’t say anything negative about any member of her adopted family. Quite the opposite. She simply said what her life was like.

The year The One Percent movie was released was the same year Warren gave his children the money to start their charities.

I don’t think I’ve read a Warren Buffet interview where he didn’t boast about his frugality and how normal his existence is. He lives in a standard house, drives a standard car, and doesn’t like to travel much.

What’s the point in being a billionaire and having all his money and not spending any of it? If money is relative it would cost him less than a penny to have helped Peter out with a car and a fraction of a cent to pay for his granddaughter to have health insurance.

The man known as The Oracle of Omaha’s family likely harbors resentment for their patriarch. Warren Buffett is a control freak. Family members have rules to follow to reap the benefits. Time will decide if future generations worship Warren for the multi-billions he made or laud him for the fact that he cut relations with his granddaughters over something so petty while giving billions away to strangers.

It was Nicole that went against his rules. Yet he cut them both off. It was especially cruel of him to speak for the entire family when he said that he doesn’t consider the girls true Buffetts.

Erica Buffett reinforced the idea that just because a person comes from a wealthy family doesn’t mean they share the wealth with their children. It sounds cruel but the families believe that it’s in the best interest to their children to make them earn it.

The AMEX black card was a gift from Erica’s grandmother Susan who has since passed. Her father Peter is more generous than Warren was and gives her a modest stipend. She now works for his charity.

On Facebook she goes by an Alias. She keeps a very low profile. I feel slightly uncomfortable posting that picture but considering it’s over 15 years old I think she’d be fine with it. Also her and her sister Nicole are identical twins so if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them both.

Erica is one of the most down to earth people I’ve met in Los Angeles. Regardless of her family. It really doesn’t bother her that she’s not handed everything.

Not all rich kids grow up like Paris Hilton.

“Leave enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.” — Warren Buffett

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