Updated:
Security National Financial Corporation
Security National Financial Corporation was founded in 1965 as a small life insurance company. Under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Scott M.
Security National Financial Corporation
Security National Financial Corporation was founded in 1965 as a small life insurance company. Under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Scott M. Quist, the firm has evolved into a multi-line holding company whose segments are engineered to hedge against economic cycles. The original business, Security National Life Insurance Company, writes traditional life and annuity products and has expanded into Mexico, providing a cross-border revenue stream uncommon among regional US insurers. The firm deploys capital across three primary operating verticals. The insurance segment is a conventional carrier, but the real estate segment — Memorial Estates and Cemeteries — is where the structural divergence lies. The company develops and operates a portfolio of cemeteries and mortuaries, generating revenue from pre-need sales of burial plots and services, a latent liability that creates a long-duration, float-like pool of capital. A third leg is the mortgage segment, originating and servicing FHA, VA, and conventional loans. These businesses do not just coexist; the mortgage and cemetery units capture consumer spending at distinct life stages, while the life insurance book underwrites the demographic tailwind. Security National Financial Corporation reported consolidated assets of over $1.2 billion, according to public filings. The company operates through subsidiaries including Security National Life Insurance Company, Security National Mortgage Company, and a network of cemeteries and funeral homes primarily in Utah and the Intermountain West. In 2023, the mortgage subsidiary originated over $2 billion in loans, per public disclosures, a volume that places it among the tier of non-bank lenders that benefit from capacity pullback at larger institutions. The defining architecture of Security National Financial is not a single strategy but the regulatory and balance-sheet interplay between an insurance carrier and its subsidiary investments. The life company's policyholder liabilities are actuarially matched against its ownership of the cemetery and mortgage units, a structure that looks less like a family office and more like a miniature, vertically integrated Berkshire Hathaway — a comparison several small-cap analysts have noted in industry reports over the past decade.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
1965
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Salt Lake City
Corporate office
Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Principals
Scott M. Quist
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How does Security National Financial Corporation generate returns across such disparate business lines?
The firm uses the life insurance subsidiary's stable premium float to fund long-duration assets, including mortgage servicing rights and cemetery properties. The cemetery segment generates high-margin pre-need sales that behave like zero-cost customer deposits, creating a compounding pool of predictable cash flows that can be redeployed. The model relies on operational leverage across back-office functions shared by all three units.
Who makes the capital allocation decisions at Security National Financial?
Chairman and CEO Scott M. Quist oversees strategic capital allocation, with each major subsidiary — Security National Life, Security National Mortgage, and the Memorial Estates division — run by dedicated presidents who manage day-to-day operations within board-approved risk limits. The firm's public company structure means allocation decisions are disclosed through SEC filings.
Is Security National Financial a family office or a public company?
It is a public company trading on the NASDAQ. However, the Quist family retains significant insider ownership, creating a hybrid governance structure that blends public-market discipline with multi-generational control. This alignment — public capital access with founder-family oversight — shapes a long-duration investment posture unusual among its publicly traded peers.
Does the cemetery and mortuary business operate as a separate entity?
It operates as a division within the corporation, not a standalone subsidiary. The portfolio includes properties across Utah and adjacent states, developed and managed in-house. The pre-need sales model means the company books revenue years or decades before delivering the service, creating a regulatory obligation to maintain trust funds that become a captive source of investment capital.
How does the mortgage segment perform in a rising-rate environment?
Origination volumes compress in rising-rate cycles, as reported in 2023 when segment earnings fell sharply. However, the firm retains mortgage servicing rights on a portion of its originations, which increase in value as rates rise and prepayment speeds slow. The counter-cyclical payoffs from its other segments are designed to offset these periods of mortgage segment weakness.
Does Security National Financial invest in third-party funds or only through its operating subsidiaries?
The firm predominantly invests through its own operating platforms rather than committing to external funds. Its investment portfolio, held inside the regulated insurance entity, consists of fixed-income securities and mortgage loans, not private equity or venture commitments. The operating subsidiaries are the primary engines of capital deployment.
What is the geographic concentration of Security National's business?
The insurance and mortgage businesses operate nationally, with mortgage origination licensed across the US. The cemetery and mortuary portfolio is concentrated in Utah and the Intermountain West. The life insurance subsidiary also writes policies in Mexico, a market it entered to serve the underserved middle-income demographic there, according to company disclosures.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on asset managers?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: