The Board of Trustees
Evergreen Equity Trust
In planning and performing our audits of the financial statements of the
Evergreen Blue Chip Fund, Evergreen Equity Income Fund (formerly Evergreen
Income and Growth Fund), Evergreen Growth and Income Fund, Evergreen Small Cap
Value Fund, Evergreen Utility Fund and Evergreen Value Fund, portfolios of
Evergreen Equity Trust, for the year ended July 31, 2000, we considered its
internal control, including control activities for safeguarding securities, in
order to determine our auditing procedures for the purpose of expressing our
opinion on the financial statements and to comply with the requirements of Form
N-SAR, not to provide assurance on internal control.
The management of Evergreen Equity Trust is responsible for establishing and
maintaining internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and
judgments by management are required to assess the expected benefits and related
costs of controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an audit pertain to
the entity's objective of preparing financial statements for external purposes
that are fairly presented in conformity with accounting principles generally
accepted in the United States of America. Those controls include the
safeguarding of assets against unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, errors or fraud may occur
and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal control to
future periods is subject to the risk that it may become inadequate because of
changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of the design and operation may
deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all matters
in internal control that might be material weaknesses under standards
established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A
material weakness is a condition in which the design or operation of one or more
of the internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low level the
risk that misstatements caused by error or fraud in amounts that would be
material in relation to the financial statements being audited may occur and not
be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal course of
performing their assigned functions. However, we noted no matters involving
internal control and its operation, including controls for safeguarding
securities, which we consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of
July 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management, the
Board of Trustees of Evergreen Equity Trust, and the Securities and Exchange
Commission and is not intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than
these specified parties.
Boston, Massachusetts
September 8, 2000
