[Mentor Shareholder letter--posted to Infomax, signed by individual brokers]

'Date'

'Name'
'Address'
'Address'

Dear 'Name':

You  recently  should have  received  one or more sets of proxy  materials  from
Mentor  Funds.  I know that  proxies  are not always the  easiest  documents  to
digest, so I wanted to take a moment to provide a shorter explanation of what is
contained in the proxy  materials and to make you aware of several other changes
affecting your Mentor Funds.

If you own one of the  following  funds,  you  received  a proxy  asking  you to
approve, among other things, a proposal to reorganize your Mentor Fund(s) into a
series of an existing Evergreen Trust.

As a result of the reorganization discussed above, it is anticipated that all of
the funds  named below will change  their names from Mentor to  Evergreen  on or
about  October  18,  1999,  to  reflect  the fact  that they are now part of the
Evergreen family of funds. The investment  objectives stay the same, as will the
portfolio  managers.  The newspaper  listings for these funds will appear in the
Evergreen Funds section on or about October 19, 1999.


Current Mentor Fund                         Name Change as of 10/18/99                  Portfolio Managers
                                                                                  
Mentor Balanced Portfolio                   Evergreen Capital Balanced Fund             Davenport/Jones

Mentor Capital Growth Portfolio             Evergreen Capital Growth Fund               Davenport

Mentor Fixed Income Portfolio               Evergreen Select Fixed Income II            Jones

Mentor Growth Portfolio                     Evergreen Growth Fund                       Price

Mentor High Income Portfolio                Evergreen High Income Fund                  Jones

Mentor Income and Growth Portfolio          Evergreen Capital Income and Growth Fund    Davenport/Jones

Mentor Municipal Income Portfolio           Evergreen Municipal Income Fund             Kimball/Colby

Mentor Perpetual Global Portfolio           Evergreen Perpetual Global Fund             Perpetual Inv.
                                                                                        Mngmt., LTD
Mentor Perpetual International Portfolio    Evergreen Perpetual International Fund      Perpetual Inv.
                                                                                        Mngmt., LTD
Mentor Quality Income Portfolio             Evergreen Quality Income Fund               Jones

Mentor Short-Duration Income Portfolio      Evergreen Short-Duration Income Fund        Jones


If you are a shareholder in one of the three funds listed below, you should have
received a  prospectus/proxy  statement  asking you to approve  the same type of
reorganization mentioned above and another proposal regarding the merger of your
fund into an Evergreen  Fund.  In each of the  mergers,  the Mentor Fund and the
Evergreen  Fund into which the Mentor  Fund is  proposed  to merge have  similar
investment  objectives.  Because the Evergreen Fund is larger, we expect certain
economies of scale may be realized which may provide the potential for a greater
yield and better overall investment returns.

The table below shows your current Mentor Fund and the Evergreen Fund into which
it will  merge if the  shareholders  approve  the  merger.  If the  mergers  are
approved, they will not actually take place until March 10, 2,000.


Current Mentor Fund                         Name Change as of 10/18/99                  Fund after Merger
                                                                                  
Mentor Short Duration Income Portfolio      Evergreen Short-Duration Income Fund        Evg. Short-
                                                                                        Intermediate
                                                                                        Bond Fund

Mentor Municipal Income Portfolio           Evergreen Municipal Income Fund             Evg.  Municipal
                                                                                        Bond Fund

Mentor Income and Growth Portfolio          Evergreen Capital Income and Growth Fund    Evg. Capital
                                            Balanced Fund


If you have any questions about one of the proxy  statements or about any of the
information I have detailed  above,  please call me at  000.000.0000.  I will be
happy to answer your questions or provide more information.

Sincerely,


'Name'