The often-quoted words of Andrew Carnegie are gaining renewed relevance for today’s wealthy individuals, as lifetime giving becomes more popular. “Surplus wealth is a sacred trust, to be administered during life by its possessor for the best good of his fellow men,” he told the audience assembled at the Carnegie Library in November 1895.

The celebrated philanthropist went on to predict the dawn of a day when “the man who dies possessed of available millions which were free and in his hands to distribute, will die disgraced”.