Report of Independent Accountants
To the Shareholders and Board of Trustees of
Prudential Balanced Fund
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of
Prudential Balanced Fund (the "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 the 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 July 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of the Board
of Trustees, management and the Securities and Exchange
Commission and is not intended to be and should not be used by
anyone other than these specified parties.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
September 22, 2000
To the Shareholders and Board of Trustees of
Prudential Balanced Fund
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