On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed into law The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which offers hedge funds and other private fund vehicles the opportunity to significantly broaden the scope of their marketing and capital raising efforts. Pending formal SEC rulemaking, the Act would potentially lift the prohibition on general solicitation and advertising, giving funds greater opportunity to communicate with potential investors, as long as eventual purchasers are accredited investors. Accredited investors will no longer need to be previously known to the fund, a requirement that limited the number of available prospects to a fund.

Although the deadline by which the SEC must finalize rulemaking for this section of the JOBS Act is not until early July, private funds relying on Regulation D are advised to take the interim period to consider the possible impact of these changes on their business and to review existing marketing materials. Whereas a fund’s capital raising success has been largely dependent on existing relationships and its ability to reach new prospects via limited resources, such as hedge fund databases, conferences and networking events, the Act will significantly open up the field, allowing all funds to market to all accredited investors. Funds will need to become much savvier about developing sophisticated marketing efforts that will help them achieve the necessary competitive advantage to succeed in raising capital.

Press Release

Foreside Completes Acquisition of BNY Mellon’s Fund Distribution Business
Opens New Office in Berwyn, Pennsylvania

April 18, 2012 (Portland, Maine) – Foreside and BNY Mellon announced today that they have successfully completed the sale of BNY Mellon’s fund distribution business (BNY Mellon Distributors and its four subsidiaries, including MGI Distributors, Fairholme Distributors, HighMark Distributors and Sterling Distributors) to Foreside Financial Group, LLC. The transaction closed on March 31, 2012.

Effective April 1, 2012, BNY Mellon Distributors was renamed Foreside Funds Distributors LLC. Foreside has opened a new office, located at: 400 Berwyn Park, 899 Cassatt Rd., Berwyn, PA 19312. BNY Mellon Distributors’ eleven employees joined Foreside and are servicing clients out of the Berwyn, PA office.

About Foreside

Foreside delivers a range of distribution and regulatory compliance services to clients in the investment management industry, including investment advisers of registered and unregistered pooled products. Foreside serves as sponsors of open-end, closed-end, exchange-traded and alternative investment products, including commodity pools, with regulatory compliance, Sarbanes-Oxley, registered representative, and active and statutory distribution services. Currently, Foreside distributes over $450 billion of product through our established broker-dealers, all FINRA member firms. Our solutions allow Foreside’s clients to focus on asset management without sacrificing distribution and compliance best practices. Foreside is headquartered in Portland, Maine and has offices in Boston, Massachusetts, Chicago, Illinois, Columbus, Ohio and Berwyn, Pennsylvania. If you have any questions or comments regarding the foregoing transition, please contact David Whitaker at (207) 553-7142. For more information on Foreside’s suite of services, please visit our website at www.foreside.com.