The often-quoted words of Andrew Carnegie are gaining renewed relevance for today’s high net wealth 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”.