Several national media outlets have noticed recently that fund companies have been bumping up expense ratios of their exchange-traded funds and index funds this year after a drop in assets during 2008's bear market.

If you put all of those reports together, a pattern shows up—namely, few fund companies of any sort have been able to avoid at least a slight uptick in expenses lately. Indexing pioneer and low-cost leader the Vanguard Group has been especially highlighted for raising costs on its funds this year.

So a bit of news hitting the wires on Tuesday, the first official business day after the long Memorial Day holiday, might be worth noting. 

Vanguard put out word that as of June 1, it was dropping expense ratios on its funds used in the company's 529 college savings program. The plan is sponsored by the state of Nevada but is available to anyone looking for tax-deferred savings for students planning on going to college.

Vanguard says that the new costs in its plan's 19 investment options will range from 0.44%-0.66%, representing cost savings of approximately $1.8 million annually for plan investors. In terms of total costs, that should represent about a 12% reduction.

"We believe that age-based investment options are a valuable tool for college savers because they are designed to simplify college savings," said Alba Martinez, of Vanguard's education markets group, in a statement.

The expense ratios for the plan's 19 individual portfolios will also decline by as much as 0.10%, according to the company.