How many management companies should we invite to bid?

Four to six proposals is the range where the exercise works. Below three you have no reference points and no leverage. Above eight, evaluation quality collapses — the volunteer time to read them properly is not there, and the marginal proposal is usually from a firm that was never a real fit.

Composition matters more than the count. A useful field has a mix: at least one firm of comparable size to your incumbent, at least one smaller regional operator, at least one larger firm with more depth, and, if you have on-site staff or an unusual product type, at least one specialist. Six proposals from six near-identical mid-market portfolio managers tells you very little.

Expect attrition. Some firms will decline for capacity, geography, or because your community is not their profile. That is useful information, and a firm that declines honestly and quickly is doing you a favor compared with one that bids without meaning it.

The point of the field is not choice for its own sake. It is that a company quoting into a comparison it knows is happening quotes differently from one quoting into a vacuum.