Who manages Bill Gates' $82 bn? Meet Michael Larson

If you were the world's richest man, who would you trust your money with? That's an $82 billion question that Bill Gates doesn't have to worry about

Meet Michael Larson, the man who manages Bill Gates’ money, besides the $41 billion endowment of the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation. 
 

A Wall Street Journal profile of one of the most low-profile money-managers in the world reveals that though the two men share a bond that is crucial to the billionaire's philanthropy – one multiplies the money, the other gives it to various charities and causes – rarely socialise. The only outward sign that Gates trusts Larson implicitly came at a recent dinner held in his honour, the Journal reported. 
 

 

A former bond-fund manager, Larson manages Gate’s wealth through a rather aptly-named firm called Cascade Investments LLC since 1994, using an array of tactics that are disclosed to anyone – even employees leaving the company have to sign non-disclosure agreements about the investments. The only investments that Cascade doesn’t handle are tech and biotech, which Gates handles himself. 
 

Here are 10 things you should know about the man who handles the world’s largest individual fortune:

1. Cascade’s financial losses in 2008 were less than the 27% drop by the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the full year, the Journal reveals. This is largely attributed to Larson’s “conservative strategy.”
 

2. According to the Journal, Larson has delivered a compound annual return of 11% for the Gates Foundation and its predecessors since 1995.

3. Larson has a weakness for dark pink shirts and was earlier nicknamed the ‘Gateskeeper’ by his employees because of how protective he was of Gates. 

4. Before working for Gates, Larson was a money manager for an M&A firm and then a bond fund manager at Putnam Investments.

5. To create new investment ideas, Larson gives out $10 billion in assets to 25 outside money managers, and it’s done such that they are not given any non-public details about Gates’ portfolio or holdings, the WSJ says.

6. Larson enjoys golf and networking, and invests considerable time on cultivating and maintaining personal relationships.

7. Gates and Larson rarely socialize with one another, the WSJ reports.

8. Since Larson started working for Gates in 1994, the billionaries net worth has increased from $5 billion to $82 billion.

9. Real estate investments are given ordinary names in order to make it difficult for anyone wanting to trace back the deals to Gates, the Journal reports.

10. Larson has invested  much of Gates's money in stocks, with smaller portions in private equity and other so-called alternative assets.