TAIT, WELLER & BAKER
Certified Public Accountants
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS
ON INTERNAL CONTROL STRUCTURE
Board of Trustees
Merriman Investment Trust
Seattle, Washington
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of Merriman
Flexible Bond Fund, Merriman Growth & Income Fund, Merriman Capital Appreciation
Fund, Merriman Asset Allocation Fund and Merriman Leveraged Growth Fund, each a
series of shares of beneficial interest of Merriman Investment Trust, for the
year ended September 30, 2000, we considered their internal control structure,
including procedures 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 the internal control structure.
The management of the Funds 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 safeguarded against loss
from unauthorized use or 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 matters 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
September 30, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management and the
Securities and Exchange Commission, and should not be used for any other
purposes.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
October 19, 2000
