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September 8, 2000
To the Board of Trustees of Putnam Tax-Free Insured Fund:
In planning and performing our audits of the financial
statements of Putnam Tax-Free Insured Fund 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 Putnam Tax-Free Insured Fund 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 controls may become inadequate
because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of
their 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, that we consider to be material
weaknesses as defined above as of September 8, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
the management and the Board of Trustees, and the Securities
and Exchange Commission and is not intended to be and should
not be used by anyone other than these specified parties.
