The world lost an investing icon, today.Charlie Munger, Warren...

The world lost an investing icon, today.

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s right-hand man and the vice-chairman of investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, has died aged 99.

A billionaire, polymath, philanthropist and teacher, Munger was a lawyer by training and an investor by choice and passion.

Making a fortune initially in real estate, he struck up a rapport with his fellow Nebraskan, Buffett, after being introduced by friends. Alike in style and substance, Munger was nevertheless the more taciturn and acerbic of the two – his withering one-liners and unvarnished critiques are the stuff of legend.

Not that Munger was a snark, or a whiner. And he didn’t seek to bring others down to lift himself up. His infamous ‘I have nothing to add’ responses at the Berkshire annual meeting are the stuff of legend, and indicative of his tendency to only speak when he thought he could improve on the silence.

And while Buffett was clearly the senior partner in the relationship, he did little without Munger’s approval and agreement, such was the esteem in which the (slightly) younger man held his partner.

Munger was a Republican. Buffett is a Democrat. But the overlap in the ‘sensible centre’ is probably the most remarkable part of their public partnership. Both men have eschewed the extremes, excesses, silliness, and poor behaviour of both politics and business alike.