Fidelity National Financial, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the FNF 2021 First Quarter Earnings Call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be open for questions with instructions to follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Jamie Lillis, Investor Relations for FNF. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. Joining me today is our CEO, Randy Quirk, President Mike Nolan, CFO Tony Park, and F&G CEO Chris Blunt. We'll begin with a brief strategic overview from Randy, Mike will review the title business, Chris will review F&G, and Tony will finish with a review of the financial highlights. We'll then open the call for your questions and finish with some concluding remarks from Randy. But before we begin, I would like to remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, in particular, the COVID-19 pandemic. There is significant uncertainty about the duration and extent of the impact of this pandemic. Additionally, statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our expectations, hopes, intentions, or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management at the time of this call. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future financial and operating results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. the risks and uncertainties which forward-looking statements are subject to include but are not limited to, the risks and other factors detailed in our press release stated yesterday, and in the statement regarding forward-looking information, risk factors, and other sections of the company's Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. This conference call will be available for replay via webcast at our website at fnf.com. It will also be available through phone replay beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern time today through May 14th. The replay number is 844-512-2921, and the access code is 137-18683. Let me now turn the call over to our CEO, Randy. Thank you, Jamie.

I would like to start by thanking our employees for their efforts in helping F&F achieve industry-leading results to start the year. Our team continued to perform at a high level despite the challenging environment that we have all endured as they kept our operations running smoothly while maintaining a steadfast focus on our customers. In our title segment, we achieved record first quarter results generating adjusted pre-tax title earnings of $512 million compared to $279 million in the year-ago quarter and a 19.9% adjusted pre-tax title margin compared with 14.4% in the first quarter of 2020. We also continue to invest in technology as we roll out new applications which enhance the user experience, efficiency, and safety of the title and closing process while leveraging our unmatched national scale. Mike will go into more detail on this in a minute. Turning to F&G, we continue to execute on our growth strategy with strong top line growth and bottom line profitability during the quarter. Fixed indexed annuity sales for the quarter were at record levels and growth was further fueled by our momentum in the bank and broker dealer channel, where we are gaining significant traction within the first year of launch. As a result of our asset growth and disciplined approach to managing net investment spread, we delivered strong earnings during the first quarter, which Chris will discuss further in a few minutes. The credit rating upgrades as a result of the acquisition have enabled us to actively pursue expansion into institutional products, such as the pension risk transfer market, which will be a significant or strategic focus this year. With the strong growth opportunities that we see, additional capital will be necessary to realize F&G's full potential. However, our current plan includes utilizing a third-party reinsurance strategy to provide that necessary growth capital. The plan also includes an expected return of capital of $150 million annually from F&G to F&F, or roughly 6% of our original investment, beginning in 2022. We believe this is a meaningful return on capital and a sustainable long-term. Looking forward, we remain committed to long-term value creation for our shareholders, for our thoughtful capital allocation program, while also focusing on supporting the future growth of our business. Yesterday, we announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.36 per share, and at the end of 2020, we announced a share buyback program of $500 million. During the first quarter, we purchased 2.8 million shares for $112 million at an average price of $39.95 per share. And since announcing the buyback plan, we have purchased 6.9 million shares for $264 million at an average price of $38.28 per share. Let me now turn the call over to Mike Nolan to discuss the title insurance business in more detail.