From: dlucca@comcast.net Sent: Friday, May 07, 2004 3:17 PM To: rule-comments@sec.gov Subject: File No. S7-11-04 Jonathan G. Katz, Secretary Securities and Exchange Commission 450 Fifth Street NW Washington, DC 20549-0609 Dear Secretary Katz, I am writing on behalf of our money management firm that serves almost 500 investors to oppose the proposed mandatory 2% redemption fee (File No. S7-11-04) for mutual funds for the following reasons: 1. The proposed rules duplicate an option the funds already have at their disposal. If a fund's managment senses any problem at their fund, they can already choose to impose a redemption fee. Most funds obviously do not believe there is a problem or they would have already availed themselves of this option. To make it mandatory for all funds, even when there is no problem present is not logical and only ends up hurting the little guy. 2. No objective study has been done that shows a systemic problem that this proposed fee would solve. 3. The real problem that the rule attempts to solve is cause not by investor behavior, but by failure at the fund management level to refresh prices. Punishing the investor for the failure of mutual fund management is the wrong approach. I suggest that the best solution is better standards that insist on fair value pricing. 4. Finally, imposing further fees results in an investment "tax" on the small investor - those most likely to use mutual funds. Thank you for the opportunity to comment. Sincerely, David Lucca ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ David A. Lucca Rhoads Lucca Capital Management 120 North Pointe Blvd., Suite 302 Lancaster, PA 17601 717.569.8500 Office dlucca@comcast.net