Warren Buffett had one famous question.

He asked it about every business he ever considered buying. And most of the time, the answer was no.

The question: Will this still be here in twenty years?

In a new piece, James Altucher – editor of Altucher’s Investment Network and author of Trade Like Warren Buffett – noticed something unusual happen recently…

Greg Abel, who took over as Berkshire CEO earlier this year, tripled the firm’s stake in Google and committed $10 billion toward an $80 billion AI data center buildout.

Buffett remains chairman and the largest shareholder – a man who spent six decades watching technology booms from the sidelines.

“Buffett spent sixty years waiting for technology to pass his twenty-year test,” Altucher wrote. “When it finally did, he wrote a $10 billion check. I think that’s worth paying attention to.”

For Altucher, Berkshire is the tell. SpaceX and Nvidia were always going to bet on AI infrastructure – that’s who they are. Berkshire had no reason to move. When it did anyway, that settled the question…

Will this still be here in twenty years?

For AI infrastructure, Berkshire’s answer is yes.

In his own practice, WorthNet Partner Adviser John Parise gets the same question all the time. Not about companies – about families.

“I worked my whole life building this. How do I make sure it’s still there for my grandkids… will it be here in 20 years?”

Parise is a principal of Copper Beech Financial Group, a New Jersey-based financial planning firm focused exclusively on multi-generational wealth strategies for business owner families. He’s spent more than four decades working on the structural decisions that determine whether wealth transfers cleanly to the next generation or quietly unravels.

He’s seen what happens when families answer that question – and when they don’t.

Here’s a real-life example:

A CFO referred Parise to a family-owned agricultural business on the West Coast – three siblings running the company their father had built.

When Parise flew out to meet them, the father wandered into the room and sat quietly for nearly an hour. He never said much. When the meeting ended, one of his daughters pulled Parise aside.

She’d said she’d never seen her father sit through a meeting that long.

The father was the one who convinced his children to hire them. And the work that followed spanned nearly a decade…

It involved trust structures designed to freeze the value of the siblings’ estates and transfer appreciation to the next generation, a women-owned business certification preserved – one that anchored key contracts and couldn’t be jeopardized by a careless transfer – and a waterfall estate tax exposure identified and substantially reduced.

All this, based on the family’s specific circumstances and applicable tax laws at the time, was estimated to reduce projected estate tax exposure by several million dollars over multiple generations.

With those savings, the family started a foundation.

“It’s not the tax savings itself,” Parise explains. “It’s what those tax savings could grow to for future generations – or for charity.”

Of course, be aware that this example is provided for illustrative purposes only. It reflects the circumstances of one client and should not be interpreted as representative of the experience of all clients or as a guarantee of future results. Results depend on each client’s unique facts and circumstances.

That’s what “will this still be here in twenty years” looks like when the answer is yes.

Buffett recognized something in AI infrastructure that most investors missed until recently: the physical layer is more durable than the software layer.

Parise says it’s the same with family wealth…

A trust is infrastructure. A succession plan is infrastructure. A coordinated team of advisers who treat the family like a business and the business like a family – these are the durable structures that determine whether wealth compounds across generations or dissipates into the third one.

“The industry got lazy,” Parise says. “Advisers manage money. Attorneys draft documents. CPAs file returns. But who is asking the question Buffett spent sixty years asking? Who is looking at what you’ve built and asking whether it will still be there in twenty years?”

The families that get this right, Parise has observed, tend to share one characteristic: they started earlier than they thought they needed to.

As Altucher put it: when the most patient investor in history finally moves, it’s worth asking what took him so long – and whether you’ve been that patient with your own family’s future.

If that question gives you pause, WorthNet can connect you with advisers who specialize in exactly this kind of planning. Some of our partner advisers, including John Parise of Copper Beech Financial Group, work specifically with business owner families on multi-generational wealth strategies.

Click below and take our short questionnaire to get matched with a WorthNet partner adviser.

Because you’re an independent-minded financial newsletter reader, we believe you’ll want to know the honest, no-BS truth about how we work:

WorthNet has a financial relationship with the advisers in our small, curated network – including Copper Beech Financial Group – and may receive compensation in connection with introductions made to the firm. James Altucher’s editorial views are his own and are independent of that relationship. Nothing here constitutes personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial planning advice.

Our goal is to connect self-directed investors with advisers we’ve carefully selected.

P.S. Buffett’s twenty-year test is a useful filter for investments. It may be an even more useful filter for the structures you put in place to protect what you’ve built. If you haven’t asked it lately about your own estate plan, succession plan, or family wealth strategy – that may be worth a conversation.

John J. Parise

Founder & Managing Partner of Copper Beech Financial Group

Your Generational Wealth Partner

John J. Parise is a seasoned investment adviser who has helped families optimize their investments for taxes and developed cross-generational plans to preserve wealth for nearly 40 years. His firm, Copper Beech Financial Group (CRD #313156), is a proud member of the WorthNet partner adviser network.

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Last Revised: August 10, 2026