Bill and Melinda Gates divorce: How $145 bn can be split between couple

As a married couple, Bill and Melinda Gates spent decades amassing one of history’s largest fortunes. Now that they’re divorcing, they have to untangle that $145 billion.

Details of the split have already started to emerge.

Cascade Investment, a holding company Bill created with his Microsoft winnings, transferred securities worth more than $1.8 billion to Melinda French Gates, according to US regulatory filings dated May 3. The shift comprised about $1.5 billion of Canadian National Railway Co. shares and more than $300 million of AutoNation stock. Cascade holds securities valued at more than $50 billion, including stakes in Republic Services, Deere & Co. and Ecolab.

How their wealth is ultimately divvied up is set to shake up the uppermost ranks of the world’s richest people and could have billion-dollar implications on what philanthropic causes get attention.

The biggest asset is Cascade Investment, run by money manager Michael Larson. Through Cascade, Gates has interests in real estate, energy and hospitality as well as public companies. Canadian National is the third-biggest public equity holding. Cascade tra­nsferred 14.1 million shares to Melinda, and has 87.3 million shares, which are ow­ned by Bill, the regulatory filing shows.

The couple are among the lar­gest landowners in the US and have homes inc­luding their 66,000 square-foot mansion in Medina, Washin­gton.

The rapid stock transfer could be a sign that it’s already been decided how the fortune will be split.

“I would imagine that almost everything is done,” said Jacqueline Newman, a divorce attorney and managing partner at Berkman Bottger Newman & Schein. “For them to issue this kind of statement, they have probably worked out 90-95 per cent of the divorce. They’re not putting something like this out otherwise.”

The Gateses live in Washin­g­ton, which is a community pro­perty state. That means that anything acquired during a mar­riage is considered to be equally owned by both partners. But that doesn’t necessarily mean their fortune will be evenly split. “It is not a mandatory 50-50,” said Janet George, a family lawyer in Washington with the firm McKinley Irvin. “The courts can award more or less, depending on what is just and equitable.”

The foundation is one of the largest private charitable foundations in the world, having made almost $55 billion in grant payments through the end of 2019. A former general manager at Microsoft, Melinda helps drive strategy at the organisation, with a particular focus on gender equity. Bill has been more focused on the science and global health side.

Splitting the Gates Foundation is difficult for many philanthropic experts to imagine. However, “they could pursue separate goals within the confines of the foundation itself”, said Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University professor who studies nonprofits.

Already a household name thanks to his previous status as the world’s richest man, Bill Gates became even more famous when he emerged as a go-to expert on the pandemic at a time when official guidance was often confusing and contradictory. His work has made him a target of conspiracy theories as well as controversies over patents and how to open up global access to the vaccines.

French Gates has in recent years helped shift the foundation’s strategy, as a “top-down, technocratic” approach to giving has become more responsive to “community needs and community input”, said Benjamin Soskis, senior research associate at the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy.

Despite its size, the Gates Foundation’s board only has three members: Bill, Melinda, and Warren Buffett — who has promised to devote bulk of his own considerable fortune to his friends’ foundation.