Tens of thousands of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders will gather in Omaha, Nebraska, today to listen to the legendary investor Warren Buffett deliver his yearly remarks.

This year, the questions put to Mr Buffett at Berkshire's annual meeting are likely to be more pointed as investors try to assess whether the 74-year-old chairman and chief executive will be drawn into the investigation by US regulators into abuses in the insurance sector. At the centre of their inquiry is the use of finite reinsurance.

Four years ago, General Re, a reinsurance subsidiary that Berkshire acquired in 1998, arranged a questionable finite reinsurance transaction for American International Group (AIG). Maurice "Hank" Greenberg was ousted from AIG last month after evidence emerged that he arranged this contract, which was used to inappropriately inflate AIG's reserves.

This month, regulators called Mr Buffett as a witness to testify about the transaction. Mr Buffett said he knew few details about it.

While some believe Mr Buffett will face scrutiny during the question-and-answer session at the Qwest Center today, others are less convinced.

"Are people going to ask him tough questions? I don't think so," said Daniel Strachman, a Berkshire shareholder and managing partner of Answers & Company, a financial services group.

"Most of the people who come to the meeting begin their questions with 'Thank you Mr Buffett for making me a fortune'."