Security National CEO on the 3rd Quarter 2026: “We had a rugged 3rd Quarter”

November 13, 2026/Finance/

Security National Financial Corporation’s Chairman, President, and CEO Scott Quist made this comment in the opening remarks of the company’s 3rd Quarter Earnings Report earlier this week, “From the Income Statement point of view, we had a rugged 3^rd quarter, with earnings decreasing some 37% (pre-tax) . . . “

Quist was referring to the entire company which has other divisions outside of its Cemetery and Mortuary Segment. Specific to the Cemetery and Mortuary Segment he made this comment in prepared remarks, “Our Cemetery and Mortuary Segment similarly had a rugged Q3 with profit declining roughly $500,000 or 17%, as compared to 2025. “

You can access the company’s 3rd Quarter Financial Report here.

He did go on to mention that for the Cemetery and Mortuary Segment the loss was not about the business operations. Quist made the point to tell investors that the Cemetery and Mortuary Segment had “unrealized stock portfolio” losses of over $400,000 and also had a 2025 3rd Quarter income from a leasing gain of $241,000, which when totaled up leads to an over $600,000 quarterly difference in profits.

Operationally, the Cemetery/Mortuary division had a 1.3% increase in revenue for 3Q26 over 3Q25 as the Revenue jumped from $8.92 million in 3Q25 to $9.04 million in 3Q26.

Additionally, for the 9-months of 2026 thru the end of September, the Cemetery/Mortuary Revenue has totaled $27.3 million in comparison to the prior year’s 9-month Revenue of $25.18 million — an increase of about 8.6.

The Cemetery/Mortuary division Earnings before Taxes has also increased in the first 9-months of 2026 to $7.72 million over last year’s 9-month number of $7.07 million — an increase of 9.1% on the year.

CEO Quist made these remarks as he concluded his discussion on the Death Care part of the company’s business: “Our traditional funeral vs. cremation mix turned more towards cremation, which gives a lower revenue, and we are experiencing cost pressures. Nevertheless, we controlled what we could control, and our preneed cemetery sales rose roughly 12% for the quarter and 17% for the year, which is the largest single factor in giving us a 9% profit improvement YTD. To summarize very broadly, we “held serve” operationally, and our preneed cemetery sales viewed YTD overcame our unrealized losses, giving a 9% YTD profit improvement.”

Disclaimer: The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder in Security National Financial Corporation.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: This report follows what we have heard from other companies in the traditional funeral home business. In general, all seem to have “cost pressures” on the margin of their business at this time and all seem to be looking to make up those margins with an increase in preneed sales — whether it be from the cemetery or funeral home side.

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