Grief-Ready Advisor

Transform the way you connect with grieving clients before, during and after loss.

Powerful Empathy - the leadership skill that builds trust

~ Wanting to show up, but unsure how.

~ Risk losing clients or employees to competitors.

~ Worrying about saying the wrong thing.

~ Missing critical moments of connection.

Download my Free Guide

10 Empathy Skills Every Professional Needs

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Empathy's Edge in every Conversation

~ Gain essential communication skills in grief & loss.

~ Refine your empathy. Strengthen your impact.

~ Foster deeper connections with your people.

~ Be the leader others turn to - especially in hard moments.

READY TO LEAD WITH EMPATHY?

LET'S START HERE 👇

Speaking

Need a Speaker for Your Next Industry Event?
Explore how my keynote or training can deliver meaningful, actionable content for your audience—especially on grief literacy, empathy, and communication in high-stakes moments.

Book Kathi to Speak

Consulting

Is your leadership or firm Grief-Ready?

Grief-Ready Partnership is a strategic retainer designed to equip your team with the language, tools, and confidence to support clients through grief, loss, and life transitions.

Partner with Kathi

Training

Need Training for Your Team?

Let's explore custom training sessions that elevate communication, strengthen empathy, and build grief literacy skills. Navigate sensitive client conversations with confidence.

Book a Workshop

Your Partner in Empathy Communication

I train financial professionals in empathy and grief informed communication to support their clients, teams and employees. As a coach, speaker and university lecturer, I provide engaging empathy education to improve communication, deepen relationships, and build trust.

This is personal! Experiencing the loss of my husband first hand, I learned that the relationship between financial professionals and grieving clients are pivotal. Combining 25 years of teaching, coaching and personal experience, I created Grief Smart Professional as a tool to help professionals retain, connect and support clients, teams and employees experiencing loss and grief.

Grief and loss are universal, yet not a universal language. When you lead with empathy, you solidify trust and create referrals and loyalty for generations.

"Kathi Balasek is hands down the best at helping advisors work with clients experiencing grief. Her knowledge, ability to teach, and deep care for women experiencing grief is evident after your first interaction with her. Her class is not just theory but is full of real world tips and advice that I found useful and now use almost daily. I would recommend her class to anyone. She is AWESOME and I am fortunate to have taken her class."

~ Tim Hudson

CFP, Partner at Voyage Financial Partners

~ Stacy Francis

CFP, CDFA, CES; Owner and CEO Francis Financial

"Kathi did a fantastic training for our team of financial advisors on working with clients who are going through grief. We work mainly with widows and women going through divorce, so this was really apropos for us! Kathi was the best presenter I have ever heard on this subject, and she helped us to understand what these clients need and what they don’t need, how to effectively communicate with them in a compassionate and empathetic way, and why all of that is important for us in this industry. Kathi’s talk was highly informative, clarifying, and empowering!"

"After almost 30 years in financial services working with advisors focused on retirement income planning, I have seen that the most successful advisors are those that build strong client relationships. There is no one better to help advisors develop these skills than Kathi Balasek. Her personal experience of losing her husband and working with her advisor through this difficult period gives her a unique perspective, and her expertise as a professional educator and speaker gives her the ability to communicate these complex issues with a level of clarity and compassion that is rarely found in this industry."

~ Sheryl O'Connor

CEO & Founder, IncomeConductor

Empathy Driven Connection

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