Accounting
Financial empathy for CPAs isn’t an oxymoron
Deep in the heart of busy season, probably the last thing on your mind is feeling empathy for your clients when they’ve been procrastinating and are so disorganized. But in an increasingly competitive business climate, if you’re not able to make a true connection with your clients, they could easily move to a more empathetic firm, even one lacking your experience and technical acumen.
The word “empathy” gets thrown around a lot these days, but quite simply empathy is the ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes, to walk in their shoes and to understand their emotions and connect with them on a deeper level — without judgement. When you do that, clients will feel like they are the most important person in your life. Don’t underestimate the power of empathy.
Taking it a step further, “financial empathy” is about understanding and recognizing the emotional impact that money issues have on someone’s life. It’s about understanding the story beneath the numbers. It’s about acknowledging that money problems can be incredibly stressful and anxiety-provoking for clients, which affects their overall sense of wellbeing.
While financial empathy isn’t covered in most accounting curricula or CPE courses, high-performing CPAs are increasingly incorporating into their practices. Dr. Michael Thomas, a former auditor with a degree in accounting, now an author, TEDx speaker, and financial planning educator at the University of Georgia, told me on
3. Compassionate empathy. The goal, he said, is to move through understanding and emotional connection to reach a compassionate response.
Real-world example
David, a newly divorced business owner, was filing taxes alone for the first time as a single. His ex-wife had always handled their finances, leaving him overwhelmed by investment losses, business deductions, and estimated tax payments.
David’s conversation with his CPA began with: “I messed up, I should have known.” Using cognitive empathy, his accountant reassured him that many business owners face similar challenges, and he explained David’s tax situation in simple terms. With affective empathy (i.e., feeling the same emotion that another person is feeling), his CPA created a safe space for questions, validating David’s concerns without judgment. Through compassionate empathy, the CPA helped David create a tax plan that he fully understood. It was the first step in a holistic financial plan, giving the client peace of mind and a path toward financial stability.
By replacing shame with understanding, the CPA empowered David to take control of both his personal and business finances.
Benefits of being an empathetic CPA
- It helps you move clients away from financial shame toward vulnerability and openness.
- It enables clients to share complete information needed for effective financial planning.
- It builds lasting trust and long-term relationships.
- It creates mutual growth for both advisor and client.
- It allows money to serve as a conduit to a client’s authentic goals and joy.
Implementing financial empathy in your practice
- Financial empathy involves active listening beyond just hearing words —- understanding the interaction of communication and emotion.
- Financial empathy requires advisors, including CPAs, to self-regulate their own emotional responses while engaging with clients.
- Financial empathy slows down the process so you can hear clients’ needs more effectively.
“As advisors, we get so excited when we use our technical skills to solve a client’s problem, but clients don’t always see it that way” if it’s just numbers, formulas and regulations, Dr. Thomas noted. “Financial empathy is going through the process of understanding the emotional experience, so the client feels seen and feels heard,” he added.
Thomas said that’s when the NURSE algorithm can be very impactful for accountants and other financial advisors: Name the thing. Understand it. Respect the experience. Support the individual. Explore solutions collaboratively with your client.
Let’s look at how the NURSE framework can help a business owner like David whom we met above:
- Name the thing. Acknowledge his feelings of overwhelm, uncertainty and difficulties of divorce. “David, it sounds like you are feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about your finances.”
- Understand it. Take the time to listen to your client’s concerns, their fear of making mistakes, confusion over investment losses, and anxiety about taxes, before offering solutions: “David, many people in your position feel the same way. Walk us through the situation and let us know what’s on your mind.”
- Respect the experience. Rather than focusing solely on technical fixes, recognize the emotional weight David feels about managing finances post-divorce. Often this is where advisors go immediately into problem-solving mode. Instead, take time to acknowledge your client’s feelings, before getting into the facts. “You’ve had a lot on your plate, David. Handling this alone for the first time is a big adjustment.”
- Support the individual. Create a safe, judgment-free space where your client feels comfortable asking questions, ensuring they fully understand their new tax obligations and how those obligations fit into their business operations: “David, you don’t need to have it all figured out today. That’s what we’re here for. We can break it down one step at a time.”
- Explore solutions collaboratively. Instead of simply prescribing a planning strategy, work with your client to develop a tax plan collaboratively — a plan they understand and feel confident implementing: “David, we’ve made great progress today, and now you have clear next steps for both your business and personal finances. This should give you a path toward greater peace of mind and financial confidence.”
By integrating financial empathy with structured guidance, David’s CPA helped him replace stress with confidence, ensuring he felt both clarity and control over his personal and business finances.
Still not convinced? Well, according to Dr. Thomas, there are four main risks for accountants and financial advisors who don’t develop their empathy skills and overall soft skills:
- “Pseudo-empathetic response.” This is when advisors default to technical expertise when emotionally challenged.
- Reverting to sympathy (“feeling bad that you feel bad”) rather than true empathy.
- Forgetting that while you may be comfortable with numbers, clients may have an aversion to numbers and advanced math.
- Rushing to solutions without understanding emotional context. That’s the evil Advice Monster at work.
As Dr. Thomas explained, all humans understand basic emotions like fear, even if contexts differ. Clients won’t share vulnerability unless they feel seen and heard. The empathy process can change you as much as the client. Technical solutions should not be delivered with emotional awareness.
Financial empathy isn’t about being overly emotional or sacrificing technical expertise; it’s about creating a framework for more effective client relationships. That’s why I originated the Advis-ROR methodology (Return on Relationships). After all, isn’t that why you are your clients’ most trusted advisor?
Cherry Bekaert, a Top 25 Firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has acquired Spicer Jeffries LLP, a Denver-based firm with an extensive business in fund audits.
Spicer Jeffries’ clients include hedge funds, private equity firms, venture capital firms, commodity funds, mutual funds, registered broker dealers, investment advisors and other investment entities. The firm ranks among the
The deal, which closed in March but was announced Tuesday, marks a major expansion of Cherry Bekaert’s financial services footprint as part of its private equity-fueled growth strategy.
The acquisition expands Cherry Bekaert’s geographic coverage to the Rocky Mountain region, including Denver. It also provides Cherry Bekaert the ability to audit funds registered with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority through Spicer Jeffries’ affiliated firm, Spicer Jeffries (Cayman) Ltd.
“This is a transaction that we’re super excited about,” said Scott Moss, leader of private equity advisory services at Cherry Bekaert. “It’s a little bit different than some of the other transactions we’ve done, but it very much fits within our overall growth strategy. What makes it different is this is a core audit and tax firm, but they have been almost exclusively focused on a single industry: the asset management or fund audit and tax world, which includes things like hedge funds, private equity funds, venture capital funds, credit funds, broker dealers, family offices and the like.”
Financial terms of the latest deal were not disclosed. Cherry Bekaert ranked No. 20 on
“They’ve been around for roughly 30 years,” said Moss. “The original founder is still active in the firm, so we looked at it as a great opportunity to combine our talents and our practices in our broader financial services arena, which for us will include financial institutions, banks and credit unions, insurance entities, the asset management sector, and our private equity space.”
The two firms have been working on the transaction for the past 10 to 12 months. “Joining Cherry Bekaert is a significant step forward for us,” said Spicer Jeffries founder and managing partner Robert Yurglich in a statement Tuesday. “We are thrilled to bring our specialized industry knowledge to a firm that values growth and investor confidence. This partnership presents exciting growth opportunities for our people and enhances the value and services we provide to our clients.”
As is typical for private equity funded accounting firms that operate in alternative practice structures, the transaction consists of two acquisitions: Cherry Bekaert Advisory LLC acquired Spicer Jeffries LLP’s non-attest assets, which includes its tax team, while Cherry Bekaert LLP will acquire Spicer Jeffries LLP’s attest assets, which includes its audit team.
“This acquisition underscores our commitment to the financial services industry,” said Cherry Bekaert Advisory LLC CEO Michelle Thompson in a statement. “We value the relationships Spicer Jeffries has built with their clients, fund administrators, attorneys and other members in the investment community. We are excited to grow together.”
Moss sees it as an outgrowth of the PE-fueled growth strategy. “It’s really the culmination of some initiatives that we put in place about four years ago, when we looked around and said, we built a heck of a firm, very successful in serving private equity funds, but heavily focused on the advisory side,” he said. “We looked at our competition in the marketplace. A lot of the competition was trying to get into the advisory side, but they had built their success in the fund audit and tax arena. We look at this as a balancing out of the service lines within our overall fund and financial services sector.”
Artificial intelligence is actually boosting productivity and wages, a new report found.
PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer report, released today, analyzed nearly a billion job ads across six continents. It found that AI is making workers more productive, valuable and able to demand higher wage premiums.
“This research shows that the power of AI to deliver for businesses is already being realised. And we are only at the start of the transition,” Carol Stubbings, global chief commercial officer at PwC, said in a statement. “As we roll out Agentic AI at enterprise scale, we are seeing that the right combination of technology and culture can create dramatic new opportunities to reimagine how organisations work and create value.”
Surprisingly to some, the data does not show job or wage destruction from AI. Job availability actually grew 38% in roles that were more exposed to AI, although that figure remains below the growth rate in less exposed occupations (65%). And wages grew twice as fast in AI-exposed industries, reaching 56% growth in 2024 versus 25% the previous year. Jobs that require AI skills have also continued to grow faster than all jobs, rising 7.5% from last year while total job postings fell 11.3%.
“In contrast to worries that AI could cause sharp reductions in the number of jobs available — this year’s findings show jobs are growing in virtually every type of AI-exposed occupation, including highly automatable ones,” PwC’s global chief AI officer Joe Atkinson said in a statement. “AI is amplifying and democratizing expertise, enabling employees to multiply their impact and focus on higher-level responsibilities. With the right foundations, both companies and workers can re-define their roles and industries and emerge leaders in their field, particularly as the full gambit of applications becomes clearer.”
In addition, industries the most exposed to AI saw three times higher growth in revenue per employee (27%) versus those less exposed (9%). And skills sought by employers are changing 66% faster in the most exposed jobs.
“AI’s rapid advance is not just re-shaping industries, but fundamentally altering the workforce and the skills required,” PwC’s global workforce leader Pete Brown said in a statement. “This is not a situation that employers can easily buy their way out of. Even if they can pay the premium required to attract talent with AI skills, those skills can quickly become out of date without investment in the systems to help the workforce learn.”
In light of its findings, the report recommends five actions for businesses:
- Use AI for enterprise-wide transformation;
- Treat AI as a growth strategy, not just an efficiency strategy;
- Prioritise Agentic AI;
- Enable your workforce to have the skills to make the most of AI’s power; and,
- Unlock AI’s transformative potential by building trust.
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