Second, we continue to advance our cost-savings program and remain on track to achieve $750 million of savings by the end of 2023.
This divestiture, which is expected to close in the first half of 2022, represents approximately 20% of our traditional individual annuities account values and significantly advances our goal of cutting in half the earnings contribution of legacy variable annuities products through a mix of strategic transactions and natural runoff.
As a result of these divestitures to date, we expect to generate net proceeds of approximately $6 billion by the first half of 2022.
We are progressing well and remain on track to achieve our $750 million cost-savings targets by the end of 2023 as we look to reduce expenses while improving both the customer and employee experience.
To date, we have achieved $590 million in run-rate cost savings, exceeding our $500 million targets for the full year.
These savings include 145 million achieved in the third quarter for a total of $385 million this year.
Year to date, we returned $3.5 billion to shareholders, including 2.1 billion of share buybacks and 1.4 billion in dividend payments, reflecting a 5% increase in our quarterly dividend compared to last year.
And we're targeting to return $11 billion of capital to shareholders by the end of 2023.
During the third quarter, we also took steps to enhance our financial flexibility by redeeming $900 million of outstanding debt.
This reduced financial leverage and generated 30 million in annual interest savings going forward.
For example, this quarter, we completed a $5 billion funded pension risk transfer transaction, which is the fourth largest transaction in the history of the PRT market and demonstrates our expertise, ability to execute at scale, and commitment to this market.
Our capital deployment is supported by our balance sheet strength, including highly liquid assets of $3.8 billion at the end of the third quarter and a capital position that continues to support a AA financial strength rating.
Earlier this week, we announced our commitment to achieve net-zero emissions across our primary global home office operations by 2050, with an interim goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2040.
Separately, on the social front, the Prudential Foundation achieved an important milestone during the quarter, reaching $1 billion in funding to partners aimed at eliminating barriers to financial and social mobility around the world since making its first grant in 1978.
This milestone by the foundation follows the $1 billion investment mark achieved in our impact investing portfolio in 2020.
Our pre-tax adjusted operating income was $1.8 billion or $2.78 per share on an after-tax basis and reflected the benefit of strong markets and business growth, which exceeded the net mortality impacts from COVID-19.
PGIM, our global asset manager, had record-high asset management fees driven by record account values of over $1.5 trillion that were offset by lower other related revenues relative to the elevated level in the year-ago quarter as well as higher expenses supporting business growth.
Results of our U.S. businesses increased approximately 29% from the year-ago quarter and reflected higher net investment spread, driven by higher variable investment income, and higher fee income primarily driven by equity market appreciation, partially offset by less favorable underwriting experience driven by COVID-19-related mortality.
Earnings in our international businesses increased 14%, reflecting continued business growth, higher net investment spread, lower expenses, and higher earnings from joint venture investments.
PGIM continues to demonstrate the strength of its diversified capabilities in both public and private asset classes across fixed income, alternatives, real estate, and equities as a top 10 global active investment manager.
PGIM's investment performance remains attractive with more than 94% of assets under management outperforming their benchmarks over the last three-, five- and 10-year periods.
Third-party net flows were 300 million in the quarter, including institutional net flows of 700 million, primarily driven by public fixed income flows.
Modest retail net outflows of 400 million were due to equity outflows from sub-advised mandates and client reallocations due to rising rates and inflation concerns.
PGIM's asset management fees reached another record, up 13% compared to the year-ago quarter as a result of strong flows driven by investment performance and market depreciation.
PGIM's alternatives business, which has assets in excess of 250 billion, continues to demonstrate momentum across private credit and real estate equity and debt, benefiting by our global scale and market-leading positions.
As an example, PGIM's private businesses deployed almost $12 billion of capital this quarter, 28% more than the year-ago quarter.
In addition, our product pivots have worked well, demonstrated by continued strong sales of our buffered annuity products, which were $1.3 billion in the third quarter, representing 88% of total individual annuity sales.
Since the launch of FlexGuard in 2020, sales have exceeded $6 billion.
Our retirement business reflected strong sales in the quarter, including a 5.2 billion funded pension risk transfer transaction and 1.6 billion of international reinsurance transactions, demonstrating our market-leading capabilities.
With respect to Assurance, our digitally enabled distribution platform, total revenues, our primary financial metric as we concentrate on scaling the business, were up 47% over the prior-year quarter.
Pretax adjusted operating income in the third quarter was $1.8 billion and resulted in earnings per share of $3.78 on an after-tax basis.
First, variable investment income outperformed expectations in the third quarter by 570 million.
Third, we expect seasonal expenses and other items will be higher in the fourth quarter by 140 million.
Fourth, we anticipate net investment income will be reduced by about 10 million, reflecting the difference between new money rates and disposition yields of our investment portfolio.
These items combined get us to a baseline of $2.27 per share in the fourth quarter.
I'll note that if you exclude items specific to the fourth quarter, earnings per share would be $3.05.
Our cash and liquid assets were $3.8 billion, which is greater than three times annual fixed charges, and other sources of funds include free cash flow from our businesses and contingent capital facilities.

Summary:
Pretax adjusted operating income in the third quarter was $1.8 billion and resulted in earnings per share of $3.78 on an after-tax basis.