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SIGNATURE MARY ELLEN STANEK
TITLE VICE PRESIDENT
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<CIK> 0000824612
<NAME> PORTICO FUNDS, INC.
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<NAME> PORTICO MICROCAP FUND - RETAIL SERIES
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To the Board of Directors of Portico Funds, Inc.
In planning and performing our audits of the financial
statements of the Portico Money Market Fund, the Portico U.S.
Government Money Market Fund, the Portico Tax-Exempt Money
Market Fund, the Portico Institutional Money Market Fund, the
Portico U.S. Treasury Money Market Fund, the Portico Growth and
Income Fund, the Portico Short-Term Bond Market Fund, the
Portico Bond IMMDEX Fund, the Portico Equity Index Fund, the
Portico Special Growth Fund, the Portico Balanced Fund, the
Portico MidCore Growth Fund, the Portico Tax-Exempt Intermediate
Bond Fund, the Portico Intermediate Bond Market Fund the Portico
MicroCap Fund, and the Portico International Equity Fund,
sixteen of the portfolios of Portico Funds, Inc. (the "Fund")
for the period ended October 31, 1996, we considered the
internal control structure, including procedures for
safeguarding securities, in order to determine our auditing
procedures for the purposes of expressing our opinion on the
financial statements and to comply with the requirements of Form
N-SAR, and not to provide assurance on the internal control
structure.
The management of the Fund is responsible for establishing and
maintaining an internal control structure. In fulfilling this
responsibility, estimates and judgments by management are
required to assess the expected benefits and related costs of
internal control structure policies and procedures. Two of the
objectives of an internal control structure are to provide
management with reasonable, but not absolute, assurance that
assets are appropriately safeguard against loss from
unauthorized use of disposition and that transactions are
executed in accordance with management's authorization and
recorded properly to permit preparation of financial statements
in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.
Because of inherent limitations in any internal control
structure, errors or irregularities may occur and not be
detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of the structure
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 the internal control structure would not
necessarily disclose all matter in the internal control
structure 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 the specific internal control structure
elements does not reduce to a relatively low level the risk that
errors or irregularities 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 the internal control structure,
including procedures for safeguarding securities, that we
consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of
October 31, 1996.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
management and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
/s/ Price Waterhouse LLP
December 6, 1996
