To the Board of Trustees
Evergreen Fixed Income Trust
In planning and performing our audits of the financial statements of Evergreen
Diversified Bond Fund, Evergreen High Yield Bond Fund, Evergreen Strategic
Income Fund, Evergreen U.S. Government Fund and Evergreen Quality Income Fund,
portfolios of the Evergreen Fixed Income Trust for the year ended April 30,
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 Fixed Income 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 generally accepted
accounting principles. 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
April 30, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management, the
Board of Trustees of Evergreen Fixed Income 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
June 9, 2000
