Report of Independent Accountants
To the Shareholders and Trustees
Alpine Equity Trust
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of
Alpine International Real Estate Equity Fund (the "Fund") for the
year ended October 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 October 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of
the 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.
December 21, 2000
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