Gemini’s sister company, Northern Lights Distributors, LLC (“NLD”), a broker-dealer specializing in providing comprehensive, advisor-driven solutions for fund distribution services, held its first Due Diligence Face to Face Conference from April 18-19, 2013 at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa in Newport Beach, Calif. The conference enabled broker-dealers and home office representatives to meet and perform due diligence on a focused group of alternative boutique mutual fund managers.

“Northern Lights is committed to empowering alternative fund managers by connecting them with broker-dealers that can offer selling agreements and platform affiliations,” said Brian Nielsen, Chief Executive Officer of NLD. “Our Due Diligence Face to Face Conference provided a unique opportunity for fund managers to obtain access to multiple broker-dealers and explore a variety of paths to asset growth.”

More than 70 financial services professionals from broker-dealers and fund managers attended the conference. Since the event was designed to facilitate introductions between broker-dealers and managers, the conference comprised meetings between participants in a “speed-dating” format to generate as much interaction as possible.

“Typically it would take an entire year to meet with as many broker-dealers as we spoke with in a single day at this conference,” said Jeff Kuhlman, Managing Director of LJM Partners, Ltd. “Access to broker-dealers is vital for growing our fund’s assets under management, and our partnership with Northern Lights provides us with the networking, distribution and marketing assistance that allows us to effectively compete in today’s competitive marketplace.”

NLD plans to hold additional Due Diligence Face to Face Conferences annually. After the first conference, many participating broker-dealers followed up with NLD to request selling agreements with, or further information about, fund managers they met.

“Given the growing demand from advisors and investors for exposure to alternative investment strategies, analysts need to exchange actionable information about as many available strategies as possible,” said Brooks Friederich, Vice President and Senior Investment Analyst at Envestnet|PMC. “This conference was extremely helpful because we learned about a wide variety of new strategies that would not have otherwise appeared on our radar.”

For more information about NLD, please contact Dana Taormina at 973-850-7305 or dtaormina@jcprinc.com. To visit NLD’s web site, go to www.nldistributors.com.