Todd Combs
Investment Manager & CEO of GEICO, Berkshire Hathaway
Investment manager hired in 2010 to help manage Berkshire's equity portfolio; later took over as CEO of GEICO.
Biography
Todd Combs joined Berkshire Hathaway in 2010 as an investment manager, the first of the two outside managers Buffett hired to run parts of the equity portfolio and eventually succeed him in the investment role. The seat had been held at GEICO by Lou Simpson, whose retirement that summer left Berkshire without backup in the investment area — a gap Buffett had flagged to shareholders four years earlier.
Before Berkshire, Combs founded Castle Point Capital Management, a hedge fund he launched in 2005 that concentrated on financial-services companies — banks, insurers, specialty finance — an industry most investors find too opaque to analyze well. His path to running his own fund had run through bank examination and insurance, giving him an unusual grounding in the businesses he invested in. When Buffett announced the hire, commentators puzzled over why Berkshire had picked someone "little-known" rather than a big name; Buffett answered that the goal had been to find a young Secretariat, not an aging Seabiscuit.
Combs's role grew steadily past stock-picking. In 2014 Buffett made him and Ted Weschler chairmen of two small acquisitions so each would learn the management of businesses as well as the evaluation of investments. In 2016 Combs joined the board of JPMorgan Chase. In 2020 he took on the largest operating job of his career: CEO of GEICO, Berkshire's flagship auto insurer, while retaining investment duties. He spent five years rebuilding GEICO's cost position and modernizing its underwriting, work Buffett assessed in the 2024 letter as still incomplete but already spectacular in its results. In late 2025 Combs left Berkshire to join JPMorgan Chase; the 2025 letter records that a portion of the portfolio he had overseen passed to Ted Weschler.
Key Stories
The 2010 Hiring — Buffett laid out what he wanted before he named who he wanted: not a manager with a great recent record, but someone who understood risk as "the ability to anticipate the effects of economic scenarios not previously observed," and who would regard Berkshire as far more than a job. When he and Munger met Combs, he wrote, they knew he fit. Combs's pay was structured to match the philosophy: a salary plus a contingent payment tied to his performance against the S&P, with deferrals and carryforwards designed so no one could walk away rich from see-saw results — a pointed contrast with hedge-fund practice Buffett described in the same breath.
Building Castle Point — Combs started Castle Point in 2005 and built it around deep, concentrated research into financial companies, the sector where accounting is hardest to read and mistakes are most expensive. It was precisely the skill Berkshire's portfolio needed, and the track record there is what put him on Buffett's radar.
Outperforming the Boss — In 2012, his first full year alongside Weschler, Combs beat the S&P 500 by a double-digit margin, and Buffett conceded both men "left me in the dust." He did it again in 2013, prompting Buffett to confess that their investments had outperformed his — and that Charlie said he should add "by a lot." Funds under each manager rose from a few billion dollars in 2012 to almost $5 billion, then past $7 billion, past $10 billion, and, by the 2021 letter, to $34 billion of combined authority.
Bringing Precision Castparts to Omaha — Combs had followed Precision Castparts for years and brought the company to Buffett's attention, then educated him about both the business and its chief executive, Mark Donegan. Buffett wrote in the 2015 letter that the acquisition — at roughly $32 billion, one of the largest in Berkshire's history — would not have happened without Combs's input and assistance.
Chairman of Two Companies — In 2014 Buffett bought two smaller companies and installed Combs and Weschler as chairmen, one each, explicitly to make them better investors by giving them oversight of actual businesses. It was the first rehearsal of the operator-investor combination Buffett wanted in his successors.
Repolishing GEICO — When Combs became CEO in 2020, GEICO had fallen behind competitors on telematics and let its legendary cost advantage erode. He cut expenses, closed the technology gap, and brought underwriting practices up to date. Buffett's metaphor in the 2024 letter: GEICO was a long-held gem that needed major repolishing, and Combs worked tirelessly getting the job done.
Impact on Berkshire
Combs mattered to Berkshire in three distinct ways, only the first of which was visible in the stock portfolio.
Proving the succession model. Buffett's plan for handing off the investment function rested on finding people with brains, judgment, and character who would treat Berkshire as more than a job. Combs was the proof of concept — the first hire, the one who showed the model could work before Weschler arrived. "Hiring these two was one of my best moves," Buffett wrote in 2015.
Value beyond the portfolio. The PCC acquisition alone repaid Combs's hiring many times over: a sourcing and diligence contribution worth tens of billions that had nothing to do with his own stock picks. Buffett noted repeatedly that both managers created value in matters unrelated to their portfolios.
The operator-investor prototype. GEICO is one of Berkshire's crown jewels, and its five-year turnaround under Combs was among the most consequential operating efforts at Berkshire in the 2020s. Whatever the ultimate judgment on his tenure, Combs demonstrated that an investment manager could also run a major insurance business — the exact combination Buffett had said, in the 2014 letter, that Berkshire's future leaders needed.
Key Passages from Buffett's Letters
When Charlie and I met Todd Combs, we knew he fit our requirements. Todd, as was the case with Lou, will be paid a salary plus a contingent payment based on his performance relative to the S&P. We have arrangements in place for deferrals and carryforwards that will prevent see-saw performance being met by undeserved payments.
Our goal was to find a 2-year-old Secretariat, not a 10-year-old Seabiscuit.
As 2011 started, Todd Combs joined us as an investment manager, and shortly after yearend Ted Weschler came aboard. Both of these men have outstanding investment skills and a deep commitment to Berkshire. Each will be handling a few billion dollars in 2012, but they have the brains, judgment and character to manage our entire portfolio when Charlie and I are no longer running Berkshire.
Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, our new investment managers, have proved to be smart, models of integrity, helpful to Berkshire in many ways beyond portfolio management, and a perfect cultural fit. We hit the jackpot with these two. In 2012 each outperformed the S&P 500 by double-digit margins. They left me in the dust as well.
In a year in which most equity managers found it impossible to outperform the S&P 500, both Todd Combs and Ted Weschler handily did so. Each now runs a portfolio exceeding $7 billion. They’ve earned it.
Todd and Ted have also created significant value for you in several matters unrelated to their portfolio activities. Their contributions are just beginning: Both men have Berkshire blood in their veins.
I’ve asked Todd and Ted to each take on one as Chairman, in which role they will function in the very limited way that I do with our larger subsidiaries. This arrangement will save me a minor amount of work and, more important, make the two of them even better investors than they already are (which is to say among the best).
A personal thank-you: The PCC acquisition would not have happened without the input and assistance of our own Todd Combs, who brought the company to my attention a few years ago and went on to educate me about both the business and Mark. Though Todd and Ted Weschler are primarily investment managers -- they each handle about $9 billion for us -- both of them cheerfully and ably add major value to Berkshire in other ways as well. Hiring these two was one of my best moves.
In five years, Todd Combs has reshaped GEICO in a major way, increasing efficiency and bringing underwriting practices up to date. GEICO was a long-held gem that needed major repolishing, and Todd has worked tirelessly in getting the job done. Though not yet complete, the 2024 improvement was spectacular.