Fidelity National Financial, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the FNF 2021 Third 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 Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today is our CEO, Randy Quirk, President Mike Nolan, CFO Tony Park, and F&G's 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 the 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. 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 dated 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 Wednesday, November 10th. The replay number is 844-512-2921. and the access code is 137-236-39. Let me now turn the call over to our CEO, Randy.

Thank you, Jamie. We are very pleased with our record-setting third quarter results as we increased revenues 31% to $3.9 billion, which resulted in adjusted net earnings growth of 39% to $604 million, both as compared with the 2020 third quarter. Our title business continued to deliver record results while F&G expanded into new institutional channels which position us well for strong asset growth. Importantly, we grew our holding company cash balance by 25% to $1.5 billion as compared to $1.2 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2021. Cash on our balance sheet grew despite our continued activity returning capital to our shareholders through share buybacks and our quarterly dividend. As Tony will discuss in more detail, the cash growth was delivered primarily through organic business results. During the quarter, we took advantage of exceptional interest rates and issued $450 million of 3.2% senior notes with a 30-year maturity. We also funded a $400 million in a company loan with F&G to fund their growth. Overall, our results this quarter speaks to the dynamic business model that we have created, which we believe positions us for success through varying market cycles. Turning to our title results, we delivered adjusted pre-tax title earnings of $669 million, with an adjusted pre-tax title margin of 21.7% in the 2021 third quarter, compared with adjusted pre-tax title earnings of $528 million, and an adjusted pre-tax title margin of 21.2% in the 2020 comparable quarter. Our third quarter margins and earnings were the strongest third quarter results in our company's history, which speaks to our market-leading position combined with outstanding execution by our entire team. Turning to F&G, we continue to be very pleased with the results this quarter as we open new channels of distribution and accelerate our sales growth, driving assets under management at the end of the third quarter to nearly $35 billion, an increase of 9% in the quarter. This growth was driven by strong retail annuity sales and F&G's interest into institutional markets. Total assets under management have grown 31%, since we closed the acquisition. We are well on our way towards our goal of more than doubling assets under management in five years. As F&G's assets continue to grow, they provide an increasingly important component of our overall earnings. Looking forward, we will continue to evaluate our capital allocation strategy as we remain committed to long-term value creation for our shareholders, while also focusing on supporting the future growth of our businesses. Share buybacks are an important component of our strategy, and we were active once again having purchased 1.3 million shares for $61 million and an average price of $46.29 per share through the third quarter. In the first week of October, we reached our $500 million share buyback target, which we announced in the fourth quarter of 2020. Lastly, we announced yesterday a quarterly cash dividend of 44 cents per share, an increase of 10% from our previous quarterly dividend. This is the second consecutive quarter that we have increased our dividend given our strong earnings and cash flows through the first three quarters of the year. Let me now turn the call over to Mike Nolan to discuss the title insurance business in more detail.