FNF 2026年第3四半期決算説明会：商業向け増収に伴いタイトル事業が増益

主要ポイント

• FNFが発表した2026年第3四半期の調整後純利益は3億5,200万ドル（希薄化後1株当たり1.32ドル）となり、2025年第3四半期の4億3,900万ドル（同1.63ドル）を下回った。
• 権原保険事業の調整後税引前利益は前年同期比3%増の4億2,200万ドルとなった。調整後税引前利益率は前年同期の17.8%に対し17.1%だった。
• 2026年首尾9カ月間の商業用直接収入は前年同期比22%増の12億ドルに達した。経営陣は、商業用事業が引き続き過去最高の年となるペースを維持していると述べた。
• 再保険前のF&Gの総運用資産残高（グロスAUM）は前年同期比7%増の762億ドルとなった。第3四半期の総売上高は30億ドルで、これには過去最高となる中核個人向け売上高21億ドルが含まれる。
• 住宅ローン金利の高止まりと通常の季節的要因により、10月の受注件数は軟化した。他の条件が変わらない場合、経営陣は第4四半期の権原保険事業の調整後税引前利益率が通常の15%〜20%のレンジの下限寄りに推移すると予想している。
• FNFは第3四半期中に約1億4,300万ドル、首尾9カ月間で5億6,100万ドルを株主に還元した。持株会社の現金および短期流動性投資は同四半期末時点で5億4,500万ドルとなった。

主要財務データ

事業および営業業績

権原保険事業の動向

1日当たりの新規購入注文受託件数は、2025年第3四半期比で3%増加したものの、前四半期比では9%減少した。住宅ローン金利の高止まりが通常の季節性を超える下押し圧力となり、10月の購入注文件数は前年同月比6%減少した。

借り換え注文は1日平均1,400件となり、2025年第3四半期および2026年第2四半期の各1,600件から減少した。10月の借り換え注文は1日平均1,200件と前年同月比35%減少した。当四半期において借り換えが直接権原保険収入に占めた割合はわずか6%にとどまった。

第3四半期の1日当たり新規総注文受託件数は平均5,800件となり、7月の5,900件から9月には5,600件へと減少した。10月の注文件数は1日平均4,700件で、前年同月比17%減少した。

商業用事業のモメンタム

首尾9カ月間の商業用直接収入は22%増の12億ドルとなった。商業用の総注文件数は1日平均876件で、前年同期比2%増となったものの、前四半期比では5%減少した。

FNFは第3四半期中に、それぞれ100万ドル超の保険料を生み出した取引を24件完了した。経営陣は商業用パイプラインについて、産業施設、データセンター、集合住宅、アフォーダブル・ハウジング（低中所得者向け住宅）、小売、エネルギーなど幅広い分野にわたっていると説明した。また、過去に完了したデータセンター取引の借り換えについても、市場で過小評価されている経常的な需要源とみなしている。

テクノロジーと生産性

FNFはCLEARとの提携を通じ、約10万件の強化型本人確認を完了した。同社の不動産監視サービスは25万人以上の住宅所有者に利用されており、対象となる住宅売買取引におけるデジタルプラットフォーム「inHere」の導入率は約88%に達した。

経営陣は、権原調査および決済プロセスの本番ワークフロー全体において、AI主導のエージェントがすでに稼働していると述べた。同社は、これらのツールが時間とともに業務遂行能力と生産性を向上させると期待している。

F&G

F&Gは過去最高となる21億ドルの中核個人向け売上高を計上した。資本目標に沿って複数年保証年金および固定指数連動型年金にフロー再保険を活用したことを反映し、純売上高は14億ドルとなった。

保有投資ポートフォリオの確定利付債のうち97%が投資適格級を維持した。経営陣は、リターンが必要な基準を下回った際には機会追求型の販売を意図的に抑制したと述べた。

経営陣の業績見通し

• FNFは、他の条件が変わらない場合、第4四半期の権原保険事業の調整後税引前利益率が通常の15%〜20%のレンジの下限寄りに推移すると予想している。
• 経営陣は、商業用事業のモメンタムが短期的にも持続可能であると予想しており、地域やアセットクラスを問わず健全なパイプラインに支えられ、2027年も好調な年になり得るとみている。
• 権原保険および全社部門の四半期利息・投資収益は、第3四半期の9,800万ドルから第4四半期には約1億500万ドルに増加し、その後2027年を通じて四半期ごとに約500万ドルずつ増加すると見込まれる。この見通しは、今後9カ月間に米連邦準備理事会（FRB）がさらに計75ベーシスポイントの利上げを実施することを前提としている。
• 全社部門に対するF&G普通株および優先株の配当収入は、今後2四半期にわたり四半期当たり約2,800万ドルとなり、その後は予定されている強制転換優先株の転換に伴い約2,500万ドルに減少すると予想されている。
• F&G経営陣は、再保険およびキャピタルライト戦略に支えられ、総AUMで1桁台後半、純AUMで1桁台前半の成長を目標としている。
• 経営陣は、近年獲得したチームが2027年に本格的な生産性を発揮するにつれて、採用や小規模買収（ボルトオン買収）が利益率の向上に寄与すると予想している。

リスクと注目点

高水準で不安定な住宅ローン金利が、住宅の購入および借り換え活動における最大の制約要因であり続けている。経営陣はまた、通常の第4四半期の季節要因も挙げており、10月は購入、借り換え、商業用の全般にわたって注文件数が前年同月比で減少した。

権原保険セグメントにおいて、人件費は10%増、その他営業費用は13%増となった。採用、買収、およびテクノロジー投資は、関連する収益や生産性向上の効果が現れるまでの間、利益率を圧迫する可能性がある。

F&Gの戦略は資本効率と再保険を重視しており、その結果、純AUMの伸びは総AUMの伸びに比べて緩やかになっている。経営陣はまた、F&Gの事業価値がF&GまたはFNFの株価のいずれにも完全には反映されていないと述べた。

経営陣は、連邦住宅金融局（FHFA）が関係する言及された大統領令の実質的な影響を評価するのは時期尚早であると述べた。また、権原保険免除動向の透明性が限られていることにも言及したが、FNFの事業内において受注の喪失を示す有意な事例証拠は見られていない。

アナリスト質疑応答の要点

• 採用および人員配置：FNFは第3四半期において採用と買収を通じて約300人の従業員を追加し、年間では約600人を追加した。すでに一部の人員削減に着手していたため、第3四半期中の権原保険直接人員の純増は約100人にとどまった。
• 買収価格：経営陣は、権原保険事業における小規模な追加買収（tuck-in）は、引き続き税引前利益の約4〜6倍の水準で完了していると述べた。
• 利益率の防衛：経営陣は、取引量が軟化した場合でも、FNFは採用や買収を通じて市場シェアの拡大を追求し続ける一方で、人員配置やコストを調整することが可能であると述べた。
• 資本配分：FNFは、持株会社の現金水準として1億ドル〜2億ドルが適正水準になるとの見解を示した。経営陣は、取引自粛期間（ブラックアウト期間）の終了後、配当、買収、債務履行とのバランスを取りつつ、自社株買いをより積極的に検討する意向である。
• 権原保険免除：経営陣は、同期間中の300万件を超える住宅借り換え取引に対し、2年間での免除取引は約2万2,000件にとどまるという公開情報に言及した。
• F&Gの戦略：経営陣は、F&Gがフロー再保険を活用し、より高リターンで資本効率の高いチャネルを優先する中、総売上高の成長と、より緩やかな保有AUMの成長が両立すると予想している。

決算説明会トランスクリプト全文

決算説明会の完全なトランスクリプト

経営陣による説明

Operator

Good morning. Welcome to FNF's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Lisa Foxworthy-Parker, Senior Vice President, Investor and External Relations. Please go ahead.

Lisa Foxworthy-Parker

Thanks, operator, and welcome, everyone. I'm joined today by Mike Nolan, CEO; and Tony Park, CFO. We look forward to addressing your questions following our prepared remarks. F&G's management team, including Conor Murphy, CEO and President; and Mike Bailey, CFO, will also be available for Q&A.

Today's earnings call may include forward-looking statements and projections under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which do not guarantee future events or performance. We do not undertake any duty to revise or update such statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or changes in strategy. Please refer to our most recent quarterly and annual reports and other SEC filings for details on important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

This morning's discussion also includes non-GAAP measures, which management believes are relevant in assessing the financial performance of the business. Non-GAAP measures have been reconciled to GAAP as required and in accordance with SEC rules within our earnings materials available on the company's investor website. Please note that today's call is being recorded and will be available for webcast replay.

And with that, I'll hand the call over to Mike Nolan.

Mike Nolan

Thank you, Lisa, and good morning. We delivered strong third quarter results across both our Title business and F&G segment, demonstrating the power of our dual earnings engines and our ability to execute in dynamic market conditions.

I'd like to start by thanking our employees for their hard work and dedication. There is no doubt we are navigating a challenging real estate cycle, yet our team continues to generate industry-leading performance that is well ahead of the competition. Together, we are managing through this period with a disciplined operating strategy, which generates a steady level of free cash flow. This allows us to continue to invest in recruiting talent, attractive acquisitions, technology and innovation as we manage the business for the long term while performing in the immediate term.

Turning to our Title segment. We delivered adjusted pretax title earnings of $422 million for the third quarter, up 3% over the third quarter of 2025. This generated an industry-leading adjusted pretax title margin of 17.1% for the third quarter as compared to 17.8% in both the sequential and prior year quarters. As we discussed on our second quarter call, we expected some modest sequential compression due to recent strategic investments in recruiting and attractive tuck-in acquisitions in recent months where expenses tend to come ahead of the associated revenue contribution.

The compression compared to the third quarter of 2025 was also expected due to favorable onetime items in the prior year period and continued investment in technology. Overall, our third quarter results reflect strong performance across the business and disciplined expense management.

Looking at our Title results more closely, starting with purchase, U.S. existing home sales continue to reflect a low transactional environment due to mortgage rates and housing market dynamics. Mortgage rates remain high, but have fallen from their recent peak following the Federal Reserve rate hike in September. This is the opposite of the trend we saw in 2025 and has amplified the normal seasonal decline. Over the course of the year, purchase orders opened have held up well through August with each month comparing favorably to the prior year before falling behind by 2% for the month of September. Importantly, we continue to steadily outperform relative to our peers.

For the quarter, our daily purchase orders opened were up 3% over the third quarter of 2025, down 9% from the second quarter of 2026 and down 6% for the month of October versus the prior year. Our residential refinance volumes continue to be responsive to 30-year mortgage rates, although accounting for only 6% of our direct revenue in the third quarter. Notably, we have demonstrated our ability to generate strong adjusted pretax title margins without a substantial refinance market over the past five years.

Refinance orders opened were 1,400 per day in the third quarter as compared to 1,600 in both the prior year and sequential quarters. Given mortgage rates in October, we saw refinance orders opened decrease to 1,200 per day, reflecting how refinance volumes can quickly change with moves in rates. Our refinance orders opened per day were down 11% from the third quarter of 2025, down 7% from the second quarter of 2026 and down 35% for the month of October versus the prior year.

Our commercial business is on pace for a record year. Direct commercial revenue was $1.2 billion in the first nine months, up 22% over $1 billion in the first nine months of 2025. National and local market daily orders opened trended down 1% and up 6%, respectively, in the third quarter as compared to the prior year quarter. Total commercial orders opened were 876 per day, up 2% over the third quarter of 2025, down 5% from the second quarter of 2026 and down 6% for the month of October versus the prior year.

We closed 24 transactions generating over $1 million each in premiums in the third quarter across multiple asset classes in both our direct and agency businesses. This is reflected in our higher trending commercial fee per file. We view the current momentum in commercial as sustainable over the near term. Our commercial strength continues to be broad-based across both geographies and asset classes. The composition of our commercial pipeline remains healthy and includes a mix of industrial, data centers, multifamily, affordable housing, retail and energy transactions. At this time, we expect office to gradually recover with top-tier properties leading the rebound.

One question that I often receive is around data centers. We have seen data center transactions in our pipeline over the past four years and in some cases, have already seen refinances of transactions that closed between 2022 and 2024, which is an underappreciated demand driver. Similar to energy, data centers tend to be higher premium transactions, although comprising a small portion of the overall order count. This shows up in our national fee per file, which benefits from the larger energy and data center deals.

To bring it all together, total orders opened averaged 5,800 per day in the third quarter, with July at 5,900, August at 5,800 and September at 5,600. For the month of October, total orders opened were 4,700 per day, down 17% from the prior year. Looking to the fourth quarter, we remain optimistic about our commercial momentum, although we recognize the impact on residential purchase and refinance volumes of elevated mortgage rates and the typical fourth quarter seasonality. All else equal, we would expect our adjusted pretax title margin to move toward the lower end of our 15% to 20% normal range in the fourth quarter.

Over time, as mortgage rates eventually improve, we believe residential purchase and refinance activity will accelerate and trend toward historical levels. This recovery represents additional earnings power given the operational leverage that we have built into our model. This operational leverage is also supported by the investments we continue to make in technology and AI.

FNF provides essential services that extend well beyond the title insurance policy. We also manage the settlement process from start to finish. We are the rails on which real estate transactions run. For years, we have invested with the vision of building a differentiated technology platform with one overarching objective, to make every real estate transaction faster, safer, and simpler. That objective is showing up in what we are delivering today. Since we rolled out our partnership with CLEAR last year, we have run nearly 100,000 enhanced identity verifications across our operations to counter impersonation and wire fraud in property sales.

Since we launched property monitoring earlier this year, we have provided visibility and alerts as a complementary service to over 250,000 homeowners after closing. We continue to receive positive feedback from our customers on this value-add service. We are accelerating our property monitoring rollout, and we expect it to become the largest footprint in the industry. We are also driving deeper digital engagement with nearly 88% adoption of inHere across eligible residential sale transactions.

That is the foundation. AI is the next layer. We're already deploying AI-driven agents into production workflows to improve speed and execution across the title and settlement process. This isn't a pilot. It's operational. AI is still early, but the direction is clear, a better experience for our customers and higher productivity for us. Combined with our broader technology investments, these capabilities strengthen our competitive position and our ability to consistently deliver industry-leading adjusted pretax title margins over time.

Turning now to our F&G segment. F&G's assets under management before reinsurance have surpassed the $75 billion milestone at September 30. Gross AUM of $76.2 billion was up 7% over the prior year quarter. F&G continues to expand its retail and institutional franchises and delivered its best core retail sales quarter in history. Opportunistic sales were intentionally lower due to returns below threshold as F&G continues to allocate capital to the highest return opportunities.

On a stand-alone basis, F&G reported GAAP equity, excluding AOCI, of $6.7 billion at quarter end and has grown its book value per share, excluding AOCI, to $51.37, up 87% since the 2020 acquisition. We believe that the components of F&G's business, the new business platform, profitable in-force block and capital-light fee-based strategies each represent a distinct and measurable source of long-term value that are not yet fully reflected in F&G's current market valuation. At recent levels, the F&G stock has an especially attractive dividend yield around 5%, which is above average for the publicly traded life and annuity sector. We remain pleased with F&G's operating performance and foresee plenty of opportunities to grow AUM and increase the value of the business over time.

With that, let me now turn the call over to Tony to review FNF's third quarter financial performance and provide additional insights.

Anthony Park

Thank you, Mike. Starting with our consolidated results, we generated $3.6 billion in total revenue in the third quarter. Excluding net recognized gains and losses, our total revenue was $3.5 billion as, compared with $3.9 billion in the third quarter of 2025. We reported third quarter net earnings of $633 million, including net recognized gains of $29 million versus net earnings of $358 million, including $176 million of net recognized gains in the third quarter of 2025.

Adjusted net earnings were $352 million or $1.32 per diluted share, compared with $439 million or $1.63 per share in the third quarter of 2025. The Title segment contributed $315 million, the F&G segment contributed $72 million, and the Corporate segment had an adjusted net loss of $7 million before eliminating $28 million of dividend income from F&G in the consolidated financial statements.

Turning to third quarter financial highlights specific to the Title segment. Our Title segment generated $2.5 billion in total revenue in the third quarter, excluding net recognized losses of $19 million, compared with $2.3 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Direct premiums increased 11% over the prior year. Agency premiums increased 3% and escrow title-related and other fees increased 10%. Personnel costs increased 10% and other operating expenses increased 13%.

All in, the Title business generated adjusted pretax title earnings of $422 million, up 3% over $410 million in the third quarter of 2025. And a 17.1% adjusted pretax title margin in the quarter versus 17.8% in the prior year quarter.

Our Title and Corporate investment portfolio totaled $5 billion at September 30. Interest and investment income in the Title and Corporate segments was $98 million, down 10% from the prior year quarter and excluding income from F&G dividends to the holding company. The prior year period included a benefit from a legal settlement of $7 million.

Looking ahead, we expect quarterly interest and investment income to trend up from $98 million in the third quarter to around $105 million in the fourth quarter and then increase around $5 million in each subsequent quarter through 2027. assuming an additional 75 basis points of Fed rate hikes over the next nine months.

In addition, we expect approximately $28 million per quarter of common and preferred dividend income from F&G to the Corporate segment in the next two quarters. F&G's dividend income will decrease to approximately $25 million per quarter thereafter following conversion of the mandatory convertible preferred stock during the first quarter.

Our title claims paid of $72 million were $3 million lower than our provision of $75 million for the third quarter. The carried reserve for title claim losses is approximately $10 million or 1% above the actuary central estimate. We continue to provide for title claims at 4.5% of total title premiums.

Next, turning to financial highlights specific to the F&G segment. Since F&G hosted its earnings call earlier this morning and provided a thorough update, I will provide a few key highlights. F&G's top line AUM before reinsurance increased to $76.2 billion at September 30, up 7% over the prior year. This includes retained assets under management of $56.2 billion. F&G reported gross sales of $3 billion for the third quarter. Gross sales were comprised of $2.3 billion of core sales, including record core retail sales of $2.1 billion, and nearly $700 million of opportunistic sales. This mix reflects pricing discipline and capital allocation to highest return opportunities.

F&G's net sales were $1.4 billion in the third quarter. This reflects flow reinsurance in line with capital targets for multiyear guaranteed annuities and fixed indexed annuities. F&G's retained investment portfolio performed very well once again this quarter. The portfolio is high quality with 97% of fixed maturities being investment grade. It is well matched to the liability profile and diversified across asset types.

Credit-related impairments have remained low and stable. Importantly, F&G has a clean governance model with Blackstone with no inherent conflict of interest. Adjusted net earnings for the F&G segment were $72 million for the third quarter, reflecting our approximate 72% ownership stake, compared with $139 million in the third quarter of 2025, which reflected our approximate 82% ownership stake and included the F&G Life Re subsidiary, which was sold on March 1, 2026.

F&G's core spread remains consistent as the business maintained disciplined pricing and rate setting. F&G continues to provide an important complement to our title business. In the first nine months, the F&G segment contributed 22% of FNF's adjusted net earnings, down from 32% for the first nine months of 2025.

Turning to capital and liquidity. FNF continues to maintain a strong balance sheet and balanced capital allocation strategy. As Mike mentioned, we have consistently generated a steady level of free cash flow, allowing us to continue to invest in our business and build for the long term. We also continue to return excess cash to shareholders.

During the third quarter, FNF returned approximately $143 million of capital to shareholders. This brought capital returned to shareholders during the first nine months of the year to approximately $561 million. Of note, we only completed $5 million of share repurchases during the third quarter, given that we were in a closed trading window for much of the quarter due to the timing of material nonpublic information and our standard corporate governance policies.

From a capital allocation perspective, we ended 2025 with $659 million in cash and short-term liquid investments at the holding company. During the first nine months, our cash position and cash generation funded $417 million of common dividends paid. $61 million of holding company interest expense, $144 million in opportunistic share repurchases and approximately $60 million of investments in a handful of tuck-in and other title-related acquisitions, the majority of which were in the third quarter, all while keeping pace with wage inflation and funding the continued higher spend in risk and technology required in today's landscape.

We ended the third quarter with $545 million in cash and short-term liquid investments at the holding company, which is about 83% of the amount held at year-end 2025.

This concludes our prepared remarks, and let me now turn the call back to our operator for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Bose George with KBW.

質疑応答

Bose George

In terms of margins, I know you guys don't like to sort of forecast margins, but just trying to think through the puts and takes looking out into next year. Like if the Mortgage Bankers Association is right, and we have a smaller mortgage market and the comps obviously getting tougher on commercial. Do you think like the margins prospectively could be flat? Or could there be pressure with the smaller mortgage market? Just curious how you're thinking about it.

Mike Nolan

Yes, Bose, good question. We delivered 17.1% margin in a pretty tough environment in the third quarter. And we're optimistic really as we look to next year that we could have a better rate environment. The 10-year has come down 50 basis points this month and the daily rates following. And while we don't manage the business to outlooks, we're optimistic about next year. What we control at the end of the day is our operating discipline, our focus on our customers and employees and the technology investments that allow us to continue to outperform regardless of the volume environment.

Bose George

Okay. Great. And then actually, just on the executive order that came out, it's obviously kind of broad in terms of what it says on the expanding the pilot and LLPA potential reductions, et cetera. But have you had any conversation with FHFA in terms of what that might look like in practice? Because yes, it seems like it could be a lot of different things.

Mike Nolan

Yes. I think it's too early to say, Bose, because really all the executive order did was direct the director to think about things. So what comes out of that, we just don't know yet.

Operator

Our next question is from Terry Ma with Barclays.

Terry Ma

Can you maybe just update us on the recruiting outlook and how we should think about personnel costs for Title going forward? And then on the step down for the fourth quarter margin, like any color on how much of that is seasonality in market versus just incremental costs for recruiting and tech in the run rate?

Mike Nolan

The way to think about recruiting is it's really a margin enhancer. In the short term, you can have margin compression from it. But both recruiting and acquisitions ultimately drive higher margins as the people ramp up to full productivity. As to the fourth quarter, it's both seasonality as we've seen orders come down, particularly refi with higher rates. And the strong recruiting and acquisitions we've had really this year, but particularly in the third quarter, we did add a 200-plus person agency and have more than 70 revenue recruits. So that was 300 adds in the third quarter. And we're recruiting at a level that's probably 25% stronger than we had last year, but we fully expect those to be really margin enhancers as we go into '27.

Terry Ma

Got it. Okay. And then you called out data center refi. Any way to kind of size what you've seen thus far and what the outlook is over the next year or two?

Mike Nolan

Well, there's a lot of conversations in the media about data centers. We can't predict what happens with data centers. I fully expect data centers to continue. Whether there's more or less, I don't know. The callout really had to do with that these aren't one-and-done things. Like any commercial property or really any piece of property, they transact again over time. So we see that as an underappreciated demand driver going forward. But really expect overall for commercial that '27 will be another strong year. Our pipeline is good, and the strength continues to be broad-based across geographies and asset classes.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Mark Hughes with Truist Securities.

Mark Hughes

Mike, I know you haven't been able to get any clarity on the title waiver program. But could you refresh us on, when there was a waiver program, what classification, what proportion of the refis were subject to the waiver? Just kind of your latest understanding on how to dimension it.

Mike Nolan

Sure. There's not a lot of transparency on it, but I think both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac commented in, I think, it was a National Mortgage News article or something like that, that they had handled 22,000 waiver transactions to date. So I assume that means over the past two years, 22,000. There were over 3 million residential refinances over those two-year periods. So that's about the best information we've seen publicly on it. I would also just say anecdotally, I still do not have anyone in our world here at the FNF family of companies really telling me they're losing orders to the waiver program.

Mark Hughes

Yes. Yes. Very good. And then October down 6% in terms of purchase orders. What was your commentary that the interest rates have been so volatile. I'm just sort of curious if you have any sense of kind of recent weeks, any kind of granularity on that? I know it's probably not worth pursuing, but just curious.

Mike Nolan

Well, first the sequential dropoff of 9% is just a little beyond our normal seasonal number. We've seen that running at about 7.5% for the last five years. And so 9% is not way outside of that number. But my instinct is that we are seeing a little bit more than the seasonal effect because of the rate movement that we saw, particularly in September, but it can change quickly. And as I said, the 10-year has come down 50 basis points in the last 30 days, let's say. The daily rate is down to, I think, under 7.2%. It was at 7.6% on September 30.

So these things can change quickly. And we still believe there's a lot of underlying demand for housing. And as rates ease, transactions, sales, and refinances will follow. So we'll just have to manage as we always do based on the environment that we're in at the moment.

Mark Hughes

Yes. And then if I could, a question just kind of very high level on F&G, and I did listen to the call this morning. Their assets under management are pretty stable year-over-year. They've been pretty active using reinsurance. The gross sales have been quite strong, but they've been focusing more on capital efficiency.

When we think over the next year, if gross sales continue to be strong, as you see the business, is that the approach that will continue that the assets under management reasonably stable, use refi, return capital? Is that the kind of the broader strategy?

Anthony Park

Thanks, Mark. This is Tony. I may turn part of this over to the F&G team. They're in the room and are better equipped than I to handle it. But yes, the focus has been on really selling into the channels that make the most sense from a capital and an earnings perspective. And at this point, reinsurance has been a very opportune area, especially on the MYGA side. And with the focus on capital-light and earning -- own distribution and maximizing our earnings results, I think that growing that gross number and that net number more modestly, I think, is where we intend to go.

I mean in terms of F&G and if you listened to the call this morning, you heard they had a very strong quarter. I think it was the strongest core retail sales that we've ever seen for a particular quarter at $2.1 billion. That part has been very, very welcome. And really, the performance overall from F&G has been very strong over the six years under our ownership.

And the challenge, the elephant in the room, so to speak, that we all see is valuation and the fact that we have an asset here that with $6.7 billion in GAAP book value that's performing very well, and yet we just don't see that valued in F&G's share price or, frankly, in FNF's share price. And so that's a continued frustration that we're dealing with and working to improve, but that's kind of where that stands. I don't know, guys, if you wanted to add anything to that.

Michael Bailey

This is Mike Bailey. I will just state that, I think everything that Tony said is accurate. We certainly do rely on flow reinsurance as part of our capital-light fee-based strategy. We do expect to see high single-digit growth in gross AUM, and we expect to see low single-digit growth on a net AUM basis. It's important to note when comparing to the year ago period, that the year ago period includes FG Life Re, which was our Bermuda entity, and that entity was sold earlier this year. That was $1.8 billion of assets under management that kind of came out of that number. So normalizing for that sale and the monetization of that property certainly puts us back within those trends that we're targeting.

Conor Murphy

Yes. And this is Conor. Let me add as well, like from the FG perspective, we're not satisfied, and we recognize that we're being undervalued, but there's a lot of ways that we can unlock that value within the four walls, if you will, and we're focused on the optimal ways to do that in the coming quarters.

Operator

Our next question is from Oscar Nieves with Stephens Inc.

Oscar Nieves Santana

I wanted to start with next year. You've said you don't manage to an outlook. But if we think about 2027, can you help us frame revenue and the Title margin? And where does the operating leverage show up if the market is flat? And also how personnel, tech and recruiting costs could potentially offset that?

Mike Nolan

Well, I would say in terms of expectations, we expect commercial to remain very strong. As I said before, we're optimistic that we could get a better rate environment, which will add transactions to the mix. And we're layering AI and technology that will enhance productivity over time. So those are all drivers of better outcomes for the business.

If we get a weaker environment and there's less transactions, there's always levers that we can use to make sure we're protecting our margins as we've always done. And that includes having to make the company smaller, and we've shown that over time and also grow market share, which is why we're focused on things like recruiting and acquisitions. So there's never one thing, Oscar, and we're looking at all of these things all the time and continue to deliver, as we said before, regardless of the environment, the best margins in the industry.

Oscar Nieves Santana

And following up on that point of recruiting and M&A, can you share how many people you've added? I know you guys include the field operations staff numbers in the release, but if you can give us a sense of overall hiring at the company level.

Mike Nolan

Yes. I would say in the third quarter, we had about 300 from the acquisition and the recruiting. If you look at the release, we showed a net 100 addition in title direct staffing. So we've already begun some staff reductions, and we'll evaluate those in the fourth quarter. For the year, I don't know how many we've had with acquisitions for the year. Tony, I don't know if you have that number.

Anthony Park

I felt like what I heard was, was the number of 600 that was equally offset by just recruiting or was that a...

Mike Nolan

Thanks for that reminder. Yes, Oscar, I think it was -- I think we added about 600 this year just from recruiting and acquisitions. And really, it makes up the adds we've made in the title direct footprint for the year. We're not really adding people for productivity. We're really going after revenue and building not only for now, but for the longer term.

Oscar Nieves Santana

Okay. Helpful. And on the M&A point, can you share anything incremental on the prices that you're paying on those deals that you just alluded to?

Anthony Park

Yes, it's really, Oscar. It's in the same ballpark that we've always done for tuck-in title acquisitions, which is somewhere between 4x and 6x pretax earnings, and that's been consistent.

Oscar Nieves Santana

Okay. My last one is and it's on capital. Holding company cash is down since year-end. And you mentioned earlier that buybacks were light because of the closed window and you just raised the dividend. I'm curious like do you guys have a minimum level of cash that you target? And how do you set buybacks against the dividend, the tuck-ins and debt given all that, the outlook and all these moving parts?

Anthony Park

Yes. Great. Thanks for the question. Yes, we did grow cash during the quarter, but we're at about 83% of the balance that we started the year with. So we added about $100 million or so in cash in the quarter. We were closed to buybacks in the quarter because of a blackout. But we have plenty of cash, $550 million. We generate strong cash flow. So we balance certainly the dividend, and we did raise the dividend. Thank you for calling that out. But the dividend is part of our use, but we still have a lot of cash.

Beyond that, we look at buybacks and M&A opportunistically. We certainly believe that with our shares trading where they are, that it's a great use of capital. And when our blackout is lifted, I would expect us to be aggressive in that area. In terms of your initial question, do we have a minimum number? I don't know that we have a minimum number. I would say $100 million to $200 million is probably a comfortable to have at holding company level.

But again, keep in mind that we generate at the low end in a particular year, $800 million that gets upstreamed to Holdco. And in a strong year, it might be $1.3 billion, $1.4 billion in that range. And so we do have a lot of cash generation to fund the regular needs, which would be primarily the dividend and then to a much smaller extent, the interest expense.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. This will conclude our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to CEO, Mike Nolan, for closing remarks.

Mike Nolan

Thanks for joining our call this morning. We delivered strong third quarter results with our complementary businesses executing well in a dynamic environment. We appreciate your interest in FNF and look forward to updating you on our fourth quarter earnings call.

Operator

Thank you for attending today's presentation. The conference call has concluded. You may now disconnect.