What Massachusetts PRIM's Open Manager Search Teaches GPs About Screens and Quiet Periods
Massachusetts PRIM, the pension reserves investment manager for the PRIT Fund, issued a request for proposals on 8 September 2026 for active global core equity managers. Responses are due on 9 October at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. The fund stood at about $129.5 billion on 30 June 2026. This is a public equity search, not a private equity one, but an open search is the clearest public view of how a large pension screens managers, and the mechanics carry across asset classes. They also teach three lessons about outreach that apply whether you are answering an RFP or sending a first note.
The calendar shows how little room there is
The question deadline was 25 September, 17 days after the RFP was issued and 14 days before responses are due. Finalists will be notified on or before 20 November, which is 42 days after the response date, and the mandate is projected to start on or before 3 May 2027. A manager that learns about a search after the question window has closed has lost its only chance to clarify the terms. The first lesson is to monitor, not stumble: track live searches at the pension funds you target and have a team member on call before the question deadline.
Six minimum screens decide who is read
Before anything is scored, a respondent must pass six minimum qualifications. The manager must have operated continuously for at least three years, as an SEC-registered or exempt adviser. The strategy must have at least three years of actual performance under the GIPS standard, with no simulated or backtested results. It must be a long-only global equity core or blend strategy, invest across developed and emerging markets, and sit in a firm with at least $5 billion of total assets. Finally, the firm needs either three or more institutional separate accounts across all strategies, or at least one in the proposed strategy.
Respondents must also commit to a separately managed account structure and be willing to negotiate most-favoured-nation fee protection, under which the manager promptly offers PRIM any more favourable fee arrangement it gives another client. A manager who fails any screen is out before the investment case is read, so the second lesson is to check minimums first. The same habit works with private funds: before you write to an LP, test your firm against its stated minimums for fund size, track record length and team tenure.
Ten criteria, in the order they are weighed
PRIM lists ten evaluation factors: organisational stability and ownership, team depth and continuity, investment philosophy, track record relative to the benchmark across cycles, research capability, portfolio construction and risk management, capacity, operations, client references and fees. Only one of the ten (10%) concerns fees, and the rest concern the firm, the team, the process and the evidence. Managers must submit two fee structures: an asset-based fee with performance breakpoints, and a performance-based structure with a low or near-zero fixed fee plus an incentive tied to realised alpha.
For a GP, the lesson is that a pension's own list tells you what to answer. Build your reply in the order of the criteria, put the evidence next to each one, and keep your track record, references and fee terms ready as separate documents. A prepared due diligence questionnaire and a standard answer on most-favoured-nation clauses save days when a search opens.
The no-contact rule
The most important outreach instruction is easy to miss. Respondents must direct all questions to the designated procurement officer and avoid contact with other staff, board members, advisers or service providers about the search. Responses must be sent as separate PDF files, with the questionnaire and fee proposal also supplied in editable form, a signed representations document, a disclosure statement and a native spreadsheet of portfolio data. A manager that ignores the quiet period, or sends a combined file, is breaking the instructions it was given, which is a poor way to start a relationship with a client of this size.
The third lesson is to switch your outreach mode when a search opens. Relationship contact belongs before and after the process, not during it. Before a search, use a warm introduction and a short, specific note. Our work on LPs ranking response speed in their top commitment factors shows why speed and clarity matter once a conversation has started, and our template for answering the Illinois SURS manager search shows how to structure the answer itself.
A checklist you can reuse
Keep one page for each pension you track: the stated minimums, the dates of any open search, the single contact the pension names for process questions, the fee structures it asks for and the documents it expects. Before any search opens, Massachusetts PRIM and other US pensions can be approached through normal relationship channels. After it opens, follow the stated rules to the letter.
What to watch next
Watch for the 9 October response date and the finalist notices by 20 November. FundLinx members can see which pensions are running searches this quarter.
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