Warren Buffett outperformed every mutual fund of his era, Barron's notes in this week's edition.
Shares of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway have delivered an average annual return of 22 percent since 1965, Barron's writes in a piece called "With Warren as Your Wingman." It's achieved those results in a very tax-friendly way for investors.
That return beats the top-performing mutual fund since 1965 -- Fidelity Magellan, which averaged 16.3 percent a year largely due to the talents of longtime fund manager Peter Lynch.
Morningstar did the calculations, according to the report.
Of course there aren't many in Buffett's peer group. Few mutual funds date back as far as 1965, and many of the funds that did exist then have gone out of business due to underperformance, manager retirements or other factors.
Some people compare Berkshire to a mutual fund run for a pittance by the world's greatest investor. There is some validity to that comparison due to Berkshire's huge stock and bond portfolio.
But over the past couple of decades the operating companies that Berkshire controls have become a much bigger driver of the company's returns than its stock portfolio, so the comparison isn't an exact one.
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