Soul Executor was born from the space between grief and responsibility.
orgin story
Founded by Cassidie Carmen Bates, Soul Executor brings together lived experience, grief-informed support, and public policy insight to help estate fiduciaries navigate what comes after loss.
MEET CASSIDIE AND HER DAD, JOHN.
Cassidie Carmen (also known as CC) is a certified grief support specialist, graduate researcher on grief and bereavement leave, and founder of Soul Executor. Her work is shaped by a core belief: people most impacted by systems should inform how those systems are designed.
After her dad died suddenly, Cassidie became the sole executor of his estate at 25. In the middle of deep grief, she was also responsible for decisions, documents, deadlines, and responsibilities that were confusing, time-sensitive, and emotionally loaded. That experience became the foundation for her research and, ultimately, the reason Soul Executor exists.
why this company exists
“It’s been almost four years since the sudden loss of my dad. I now research grief and bereavement leave policy, which is the type of time off you can request from work when a loved one dies. I research how bereavement leave policies could be made most effective when they are informed by the lived expertise of those who have experienced a loss, combined with subject-matter data on grief, with a specific interest in better supporting executors as they grieve while handling the responsibilities they have to their loved one’s estate.
Younger me could not have predicted that I’d be doing grief and bereavement policy; it’s been a challenging journey to find healing, to experience joy after such devastation, yet it continues to transform me and bring me into deeper alignment with all I’ve pursued thus far in life.
Whatever the topic, lived expertise is critical. Not only from a policy lens, where policies are made most sustainable and powerful when informed by the insights of those the policies would serve, but also for each of us as individuals.
This is the beautiful integration of my own lived expertise with my professional and academic interests. THIS IS MY WHY.”
- Cassidie Carmen Bates, MPP "Grief, Purpose, and The Power of Lived Expertise." TEDx Talk