For one Dalhousie couple ‑ it just felt like the right choice to make

	Bruce and Sue Moxley are using life insurance as a vehicle to plan their legacy.

Long-time Dalhousie staff member Bruce Moxley and his wife Sue have spent enough years in the company of Dal students to know first-hand the financial struggles that some of them face. And as scholarship and bursary recipients themselves years ago, they appreciate the support that financial aid can bring to students.

So it is perhaps not surprising that when the Moxleys began planning their wills they decided to give back to the university system by providing for a scholarship through a gift of insurance.

While Bruce and Sue are not officially Dalhousie alumni, they look upon Dal as their "home" campus. Bruce has worked in the Faculty of Dentistry for the past 30 years, and Sue was a faculty member in Health Professions for almost 10 years.

"When you work at a university and have many opportunities to work with students, staff and faculty you see and experience the place and how hard everyone is working to make it a good place to be educated at, to graduate from, to be a part of. When you yourself have had good working conditions, excellent employment opportunities and growth opportunities, you feel you want to add to that experience, maybe even make a difference for a future student," says Bruce, who is Manager of Clinical Affairs and Support Services for the Faculty of Dentistry.

Bruce and Sue chose to make legacy gifts to both Dalhousie and the Anglican Church of Canada. However, they felt they would not have enough residual funding in their estates to allow them to leave a significant contribution to either organization - and they wanted to make a significant gift. "Our financial advisor suggested an insurance plan for which we could afford the monthly premiums and which would create a considerable gift to the Dalhousie Faculty of Dentistry, Gifts and Memorial Scholarship Fund and to the Anglican Church of Canada - gifts we could not imagine being able to support just from our estates," says Bruce.

At the time, the Moxleys gave to the Dalhousie Annual Fund on a monthly basis and they wanted to continue that tradition. They discovered that an insurance policy, naming the university as owner and beneficiary, allowed the insurance premium to be considered an annual charitable donation to Dalhousie. The regular insurance premium costs a small amount each month and ultimately builds a significant gift.

Bruce is thankful the couple purchased their policy 10 years ago. "The earlier you start an insurance gift policy the less the premiums are and the better chance your health status will be excellent," he says, adding that since establishing their gift policy he has had unexpected health problems. Had he waited much longer he might not have been able to purchase such a policy.

Bruce and Sue arrived at Dalhousie in the early 1970s. Bruce started a new unit called Instructional Resources to support dental and dental hygiene instructors in the development and improvement of teaching and research materials. A few years later he helped design the teaching facilities in the new dental building during its construction. Today, he co-ordinates the staff, physical resources and services of the clinics and general building.

Susan left Dalhousie in 1983 to become a priest in the Anglican Church. "I still do a lot of teaching, just in a different field!" says Sue, who is Suffragan Bishop of Nova Scotia and PEI.

"We're glad we started early on this process," say the couple. "It still feels like the right thing to do and we're happy to make a statement of faith in the university and the Anglican Church by supporting them with this gift for the future."