Evergreen Investments appoints Patel as lead portfolio manager of four funds

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, April 24 - Evergreen Investments announced that it named Margaret Patel the managing director and lead portfolio manager of Evergreen Strategic Income Fund, VA Strategic Income Fund, Evergreen Balanced Fund and VA Balanced Fund.

Based in Boston, Patel reports to Joseph DeSantis, chief investment officer of Evergreen's Fundamental Equity group, and Bob Calhoun, chief investment officer of Evergreen affiliate Tattersall Advisory Group.

Each of these funds will shift from a sleeved approach to an individual portfolio management strategy under Patel, using one investment philosophy and approach to security selection and asset allocation mix.

"Following the recent additions of Andrew Cestone as head of Evergreen's global high-yield team and Robert Junkin as lead manager for Evergreen health care strategies, Margie [Patel]'s appointment as part of the fundamental equity team further broadens our ability to respond to increasing demand in the marketplace for innovative, income-producing products," chief executive officer Dennis Ferro said in a news release.

The board of trustees of the Evergreen Funds approved an investment goal, investment strategy and name change for Evergreen Strategic Income Fund and VA Strategic Income Fund and an investment strategy change for Evergreen Balanced Fund and VA Balanced Fund.

According to the release, effective June 1, the investment strategies for Evergreen Strategic Income Fund and VA Strategic Income Fund will be broadened to provide the funds' manager increased flexibility to invest in a wider range of income-producing securities to create a potential for increased total return.

To achieve this objective, under normal circumstances, the funds will invest at least 80% of their assets in a diversified portfolio of U.S. and non-U.S. income-producing securities, which may include debt securities of any quality, dividend-paying common and preferred stocks, convertible bonds, and derivatives such as structured notes providing a return expected to be comparable to an investment in those securities.

To reflect the broader investment mandate, Evergreen Strategic Income Fund will be renamed Evergreen Diversified Income Builder Fund and Evergreen VA Strategic Income Fund will be renamed Evergreen VA Diversified Income Builder Fund.

Also effective June 1, the investment strategies for Evergreen Balanced Fund and Evergreen VA Balanced Fund will be modified to allow the funds' portfolio manager broader flexibility in seeking the potential for current income and capital growth.

To achieve this objective, the manager will continue to invest in a combination of debt and equity securities, with allocations shifting based on Patel's ongoing industry assessment and outlook. The funds' fixed-income securities may include U.S. government securities, corporate bonds, convertible bonds, mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligations and other income-producing securities of any quality. The equity portion of the funds may include both common and preferred stocks of U.S. companies across all market capitalizations. The funds can invest up to 25% of their assets in foreign securities, to include equity and fixed-income securities.

Patel has more than 30 years of investment industry experience managing various fixed-income and equity portfolios, including a post as senior vice president and portfolio manager at Pioneer Investments, with responsibility for Pioneer High-Yield Fund, Pioneer Equity Opportunity Fund, Pioneer High-Yield VCT Portfolio and Pioneer U.S. High-Yield Corporate Bond Fund, from 1999 through March 30.

Evergreen Investments is the brand name under which Wachovia Corp. conducts its investment management business.

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