Report of Independent Auditors
Board of Trustees
of The Olstein Financial Alert Fund
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of The Olstein
Financial Alert Fund (the "Company") for the year ended August 31, 2000, we
considered its internal control, including control activities for safeguarding
securities, 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, and not to provide assurance on internal control.
The management of the Company 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
internal control. Generally, internal controls that are relevant to an audit
pertain to the Company's objective of preparing financial statements for
external purposes that are fairly presented in conformity with generally
accepted accounting principles. Those internal controls include the safeguarding
of assets against unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in any internal control, misstatements due to
errors or fraud may occur and not be detected. Also, projections of any
evaluation of internal control to future periods are subject to the risk that
internal control may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that
the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures 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 specific 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 consolidated 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, including control activities for safeguarding securities, and
its operation that we consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of
August 31, 2000
This report is intended solely for the information and use of the board of
directors and management of The Olstein Financial Alert Fund and the Securities
and Exchange Commission and is not intended to be and should not be used by
anyone other than these specified parties.
Ernst & Young LLP
September 29, 2000
