Davis Advisors recently reduced the fees on nine of its mutual funds, including the Davis New York Venture, Selected American Shares and Clipper funds. By Fortune magazine's calculations, although the reduction averages about 20 basis points for each fund, the company is forfeiting $3.3 million a year in fees, which the magazine hails for “doing the right thing for investors.”

While fund giants occasionally get into a competitive price war, it is rare for a fund company with already low-priced offerings to voluntarily cut them further.

Chris Davis, head of Davis Advisors, told investors that the cuts were being made due to the size of the funds. “If we were starting those funds today, we would start out charging 0.55%. There’s no reason that investors in those funds should be prisoners of history.” He also told investors that some of the portfolio managers of the funds made unwise decisions that affected performance, and he didn’t want them to be penalized further through fees.