Making the Hard Moments Less Hard
When Yon and I started Empathy in 2020, we set out to support people through loss. We had both seen firsthand how much people are asked to carry in those moments. Not only emotionally, but practically. There were decisions to make, paperwork to complete, people to call, and details that couldn’t wait.
The administrative burden made grief heavier, and grief made every task harder to manage. So we built Empathy to make that incredibly hard moment less hard.
At the time, we were focused on solving one deeply human, universal problem. Loss is complicated, emotional, and incredibly personal. But over time, something became more and more clear. As we partnered with more industry leaders to cover millions of people, the needs we were seeing did not begin and end with a claim. They did not fit neatly inside one product or one major life event.
A family dealing with loss might also be thrown into caregiving. Someone taking leave from work might suddenly be confronting questions about finances, family responsibilities, or what comes next. Estate planning might start as a practical task, but it often opens much bigger conversations about family, legacy, and the future.
Life doesn't happen in neat silos. Support shouldn't either. That realization changed how we thought about what Empathy could become.
What started with bereavement care has grown to include estate planning, caregiving, and leave support. Today, we’re bringing those experiences together in one platform, combining AI with real human care to support people across life’s hardest moments. Technology helps surface the right guidance at the right time, while our Care Team brings the judgment, compassion, and reassurance that only another person can provide.
The goal is not to offer more products for the sake of offering more products. It is to be there with the right support when people need it, whether they are planning ahead or dealing with something they never saw coming. One account. One relationship. One place to turn when life gets hard.
That matters for the people using Empathy. I think it also matters for the industries we work with. Empathy now supports more than 50 million people across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. We partner with nearly 50 leading life insurers, including 8 of the top 10 in the U.S., as well as leading wealth firms and Fortune 500 employers.
Because we work at scale, we get a close view into how expectations are changing. For a long time, many financial relationships have been built around a transaction. A policy is purchased. A claim is filed. A benefit is paid.
Those moments still matter. But the opportunity now is much bigger. People increasingly expect the organizations they trust with their financial lives to be useful beyond the transaction. They want help planning. They want guidance when life gets complicated. They want to know where to turn before a crisis happens.
And the organizations that can show up in those moments have an opportunity to build a very different kind of relationship. We are already seeing that shift. Employers evaluating insurance partners are asking whether Empathy is included. Advisors are looking for better ways to stay connected to families across generations. Insurers are thinking more broadly about the value they can provide to policyholders long before a claim.
To me, this is where the next chapter gets interesting. Price can only do so much. Products can only do so much. The deeper opportunity for all of us is to become more useful in people’s lives. To help someone plan before they need help. To be there when something unexpected happens. To offer support that feels connected across those major life moments and helps people move forward with greater clarity and resilience.
That is the role Empathy can play. We help insurers and their agents build stronger relationships with policyholders. Help advisors stay connected to families across generations. Help employers better support their people. And most importantly, help individuals feel a little less alone when life gets complicated.
In the early days, the idea was simple. Make loss less hard. Six years later, that idea has grown, but it is still remarkably simple. Make the hard moments less hard. What has changed is how many of those moments we can help with, and how much more we can grow together.
And we are just getting started.