Security National Financial Corporation, the Utah-based public company with parts of its operation in the Death Care segment, reported their 3rd Quarter 2025 financials last week.

When the President of the company, in this case Scott M. Quist, starts the report in the following fashion you know that as you continue reading the report it won’t all be roses.  Quist started his report with this statement, “While the third quarter was definitely weak from my point of view. . . .  there are some definite bright spots which partially illuminate much of the hard work that has gone on.”

Quist’s commentary and the report can be accessed here.   He did go on to report that the company reported 3rd Quarter 2025 revenues from all three divisions of $89.3 million which is a 1.2% increase from the same quarter of 2024.  However, those revenues led to Earnings Before Taxes of only $10.1 million in comparison to last years comparative quarter of $15.2 million — a drop of 33%.

However, Quist’s commentary also makes this statement, “Our Cemetery and Mortuary Segment also posted improved results over Q3 2024. We are just now seeing stabilized, if not improved, preneed cemetery land sales which are a major profit driver. It is a fair statement that over the last 9 months we have completely revamped our cemetery sales force.”

For the quarter, SNFC’s Cemetery/Mortuary segment posted $8.9 million in sales as compared to 3Q2024’s number of $8.5 million — an increase of 4.5%.  And, there Earnings Before Taxes jumped 7.2% for the quarter to $3.04 million as compared to 3Q2024’s $2.84 million.

For the 9-months ended September 30, 2025, however, the Cemetery/Mortuary segment has posted revenue of $25.1 million which lags last year’s number by 1.6% and the 9-month Earnings Before Taxes has dropped 11.4% to 2025’s number of $7.07 million as compared to the 2024 9-month Earnings of $7.98 million.

Security National Financial Corporation operates businesses in the Life Insurance, Death Care, and Mortgage segments.  The holdings in Death care include funeral homes, cemeteries, a preneed company, and financial assignments.

Disclaimer —  The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a SNFC stockholder.

Funeral Director Daily take:  The report on SNFC is short and concise and not much is said about the Cemetery/Mortuary segment.  However, two things I noticed happened to be “on trend” with what I see happening in the greater Death Care business world.

Those two things are that 1) Cemeteries seem to be having a renaissance as more and more people are serious about what I term “Memorialization” of their remains and 2) that earnings to the bottom line in Death Care seem to be less on the same or more revenue — which I think is simply indicative that inflation and higher costs have grown faster than Death Care has been able to raise revenue.

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Death becomes a growing business in ageing, lonely South Korea.  The Business Times (Asia)
• How women are changing San Antonio’s funeral industry.  MSN Network
• Council OKs purchase and funding move for Fairview Cemetery Columbarium.  Citizen Portal (OK)
• Venice revives floating bridge to cemetery for All Souls’ Day mourners.  Los Angeles Times (CA)

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