Other Business Activity

3 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Accounting Policies

Significant Accounting Policies [Text Block]

10)Other Business Activity

Mortgage Operations

Over 40% of the Company’s revenues and expenses are through its wholly owned subsidiary, SecurityNational Mortgage. SecurityNational Mortgage is a mortgage lender incorporated under the laws of the State of Utah. SecurityNational Mortgage is approved and regulated by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), a department of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to originate mortgage loans that qualify for government insurance in the event of default by the borrower. SecurityNational Mortgage obtains loans primarily from its retail offices and independent brokers. SecurityNational Mortgage funds the loans from internal cash flows, including loan purchase agreements from Security National Life, and with unaffiliated financial institutions. SecurityNational Mortgage receives fees from the borrowers and other secondary fees from third party investors that purchase its loans. SecurityNational Mortgage sells its loans to third party investors and does not retain servicing of these loans. SecurityNational Mortgage pays the brokers and retail loan officers a commission for loans that are brokered through or originated by SecurityNational Mortgage. For the six months ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, SecurityNational Mortgage originated and sold 3,452 loans ($570,664,000 total volume) and 5,459 loans ($967,241,000 total volume), respectively.

SecurityNational Mortgage has entered into a loan purchase agreement to originate and sell mortgage loans to an unaffiliated warehouse bank. The amount available to originate loans under this agreement at June 30, 2011 was $55,000,000. SecurityNational Mortgage originates the loans and immediately sells them to the warehouse bank. Generally, when mortgage loans are sold to warehouse banks, SecurityNational Mortgage is no longer obligated, except in certain circumstances, to pay the amounts outstanding on the mortgage loans, but is required to pay a fee

in the form of interest on a portion of the mortgage loans between the date that the loans are sold to warehouse banks and the date of settlement with third party investors. The terms of the loan purchase agreements are typically for one year, with interest rates on a portion of the mortgage loans ranging from 2.5% to 2.75% over the 30 day LIBOR rate. SecurityNational Mortgage is in the process of renewing its loan purchase agreement with Wells Fargo Securities for an additional one year term. The loan purchase agreement expires on November 18, 2011.

Key accounting policies related to mortgage operations are as follows:

Mortgage loans on real estate and construction loans are carried at their principal balances adjusted for chargeoffs, the related allowance for loan losses, and net deferred fees or costs on originated loans. The Company defers related material loan origination fees, net of related direct loan origination costs, and amortizes the net fees over the term of the loans.

Mortgage loans are collateral dependent and require an appraisal at the time of underwriting and funding. Generally, the Company will fund a loan not to exceed 80% of the loan’s collateral fair market value.  Amounts over 80% will require mortgage insurance by an approved third party insurer.  Once a loan is deemed to be impaired, the Company will review the market value of the collateral and provide an allowance for any impairment.

Mortgage loans sold to investors are carried at the amount due from third party investors, which is the estimated fair value at the balance sheet date, since these amounts are generally collected within a short period of time.

Real estate held for investment is carried at cost, less accumulated depreciation provided on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of the properties, or is adjusted to a new basis for impairment in value, if any.

Other real estate owned held for investment are foreclosed properties which the Company intends to hold for investment purposes.  These properties are recorded at the lower of cost or fair value upon foreclosure.  Deprecation is provided on a straight line basis over the estimated useful life of the properties.  These properties are analyzed for impairment periodically in accordance with our policy for long-lived assets.

Other real estate owned held for sale are foreclosed properties which the Company intends to sell.  These properties are carried at the lower of cost or fair value, less cost to sell.

Policy and other loans are carried at the aggregate unpaid balances, less allowances for possible losses.

Mortgage fee income consists of origination fees, processing fees and certain other income related to the origination and sale of mortgage loans. For mortgage loans sold to third party investors, mortgage fee income and related expenses are recognized pursuant to generally accepted accounting principles at the time the sales of mortgage loans comply with the sales criteria for the transfer of financial assets, which are: (i) the transferred assets have been isolated from the Company and its creditors, (ii) the transferee has the right to pledge or exchange the mortgage, and (iii) the Company does not maintain effective control over the transferred mortgage. The Company must determine that all three criteria are met at the time a loan is funded. All rights and title to the mortgage loans are assigned to unrelated financial institution investors, including investor commitments for the loans, prior to warehouse banks purchasing the loans under the purchase commitments. As of June 30, 2011, there were $67,467,000 in mortgage loans in which settlements with third party investors were still pending.

The Company, through SecurityNational Mortgage, sells all mortgage loans to third party investors without recourse. However, it may be required to repurchase a loan or pay a fee instead of repurchase under certain events, which include the following:

· Failure to deliver original documents specified by the investor,

· The existence of misrepresentation or fraud in the origination of the loan,

· The loan becomes delinquent due to nonpayment during the first several months after it is sold,

· Early pay-off of a loan, as defined by the agreements,

· Excessive time to settle a loan,

· Investor declines purchase, and

· Discontinued product and expired commitment.

Loan purchase commitments generally specify a date 30 to 45 days after delivery upon which the underlying loans should be settled. Depending on market conditions, these commitment settlement dates can be extended at a cost to the Company. Generally, a ten day extension will cost .125% (12.5 basis points) of the loan amount. The Company’s historical data shows that 99% of all loans originated by SecurityNational Mortgage are generally settled by the investors as agreed within 16 days after delivery. There are situations, however, when the Company determines that it is unable to enforce the settlement of loans rejected by the third-party investors and that it is in its best interest to repurchase those loans from the warehouse banks. It is the Company's policy to cure any documentation problems regarding such loans at a minimal cost for up to a six-month time period and to pursue efforts to enforce loan purchase commitments from third-party investors concerning the loans. The Company believes that six months allows adequate time to remedy any documentation issues, to enforce purchase commitments, and to exhaust other alternatives. Remedial methods include the following:

· Research reasons for rejection,

· Provide additional documents,

· Request investor exceptions,

· Appeal rejection decision to purchase committee, and

· Commit to secondary investors.

Once purchase commitments have expired and other alternatives to remedy are exhausted, which could be earlier than the six month time period, the loans are repurchased and transferred to the long term investment portfolio at the lower of cost or fair value and previously recorded sales revenue is reversed. Any loan that later becomes delinquent is evaluated by the Company at that time and any impairment is adjusted accordingly.

Determining lower of cost or fair value: Cost is equal to the amount paid to the warehouse bank and the amount originally funded by the Company. Fair value is often difficult to determine, but is based on the following:

· For loans that have an active market, the Company uses the market price on the repurchased date,

· For loans where there is no market but there is a similar product, the Company uses the market value for the similar product on the repurchased date, and

· For loans where no active market exists on the repurchased date, the Company determines that the unpaid principal balance best approximates the fair value on the repurchased date, after considering the fair value of the underlying real estate collateral and estimated future cash flows.

The appraised value of the real estate underlying the original mortgage loan adds significance to the Company’s determination of fair value because, if the loan becomes delinquent, the Company has sufficient value to collect the unpaid principal balance or the carrying value of the loan. In determining the fair value on the date of repurchase, the Company considers the total fair value of all of the loans because any sale of loans would be made as a pool.

For mortgages originated and held for investment, mortgage fee income and related expenses are recognized when the loan is originated.