First American Corporation (New)

Greetings and welcome to the First American Corporation's Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to hand the call to Craig Barbario, Vice President, Investor Relations, for a brief introductory comment. Thank you, Craig. You may begin.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to First Americans Earnings Conference Call for the third quarter of 2021. Joining us today on the call will be our Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Gilmore, our President, Kendi Giorgio, and Mark Seaton, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Some of the statements made today may contain forward-looking statements that do not relate strictly to historical or current fact. These forward-looking statements speak only at the date they are made and the company does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made. Risk and uncertainties exist that may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in these forward-looking statements. For more information on these risks and uncertainties, please refer to this morning's earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our Form 10-K and subsequent SEC filings. Our presentation today contains certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe provide additional insight into the operational efficiency and performance of the company relative to earlier periods and relative to the company's competitors. For more details on these non-GAAP financial measures, including presentation width and reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financials, please refer to this morning's earnings release which is available on our website at www.firstam.com. I will now turn the call over to Dennis Gilmore.

Thank you, and good morning, and thanks for joining our third quarter earnings call. First American has again delivered outstanding financial results. All of our core businesses continue to perform well, and we've made progress on a number of strategic initiatives. Today I'll discuss a few of those initiatives, and then Ken will provide an update on the current order trends and business outlook. And Mark will conclude by providing details on our third quarter results. As I've said before, and it's worth repeating, First American is laser focused on innovation. As real estate transactions become increasingly digital, we are leveraging our unique data assets and technology to enhance the customer experience and to make the settlement process more efficient for all parties. One of our largest initiatives was the launch of Endpoint in 2018. While Endpoint is wholly owned by First American, it is by design also a native digital startup committed to reimagining the closing experience for buyers, sellers, and real estate professionals. Endpoint has captured a 3% market share in its initial market of Seattle, and currently operates in 11 additional markets across California, Texas, and Arizona, and we plan to add more markets in the near future. A major factor in Endpoint's success has been its ability to attract world-class tech talent. Endpoint has approximately 100 product managers, engineers, and designers and plans on doubling the team over the next 12 months. Fully embracing the tech ethic of continuous improvement, Endpoint often releases enhancements to its technology designed to further improve efficiency. As a result, Endpoint is increasingly becoming the first choice of digital forward companies, including those in the PropTech ecosystem. Given this track record, earlier this week, we announced an additional $150 million commitment to Endpoint. Endpoint will use these funds to continue to hire the best tech professionals further improve the digital closing experience, and expand its capabilities for prop tech companies and digitally forward real estate professionals. We are about to close on our previously announced acquisition of ServiceMac, an innovative mortgage subservicer with unique solutions. Founded in 2017, ServiceMac will complement our title and closing operations and over time will add assets to our trust bank. and will enhance our ability to provide additional offerings to lenders and servicers. Turning to our venture portfolio, we continue to believe our investment strategy is creating both value strategically and financially. We've made direct investments in 16 companies in the PropTech ecosystem. Through these investments, we have gained valuable insights of these companies, many of which have become strategic partners. Financially, our investments generated $278 million of gains this quarter, led by OfferPad, which went public via a SPAC in September. Based on the strength of the real estate markets and our strategic position as an innovator in the title and settlement space, in August we announced an 11% increase in our dividend. And our board also approved an additional $300 million share repurchase authorization. I will now turn the call over to Ken to discuss our recent order trends and our outlook.