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SIGNATURE ERIC M. BANHAZL
TITLE SR. VICE PRESIDENT
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<NAME> RAINIER INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT MUTUAL FUNDS
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Independent Auditors' Report on Internal Accounting Controls
To the Board of Trustees and Shareholders
Rainier Investment Management Mutual Funds:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of
Rainier Investment Management Mutual Funds (comprising, respectively,
Small/Mid Cap Equity, Core Equity, Balanced, and Intermediate Fixed
Income Portfolios) for the year ended March 31, l998, 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 Rainier Investment Management Mutual Funds 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 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 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 errors 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 the internal control and its operation,
including controls for safeguarding securities, that we consider
to be material weaknesses, as defined above as of March 31, l998.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management,
the Board of Trustees of Rainier Investment Management Mutual Funds and
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
May 11, 1998
