For the first time since 1992, FINRA has raised the gift limit under Rule 3220 — the "Gifts Rule" — from $100 to $300 per person, per year. The change takes effect March 30, 2026, and FINRA has said it expects the new limit to hold for roughly a decade before inflation warrants another look. Conforming amendments also raise the limit to $300 under Rules 2310, 2320, 2341, and 5110, so the increase runs consistently across direct participation programs, variable contracts, investment company securities, and corporate financing arrangements.
A higher dollar limit sounds like a simple update, but Regulatory Notice 26-05 does more than move a number. It codifies years of interpretive guidance directly into rule text — which means firms now have clearer answers to questions that used to require a call to outside counsel, but also means written supervisory procedures built around the old $100 framework are due for a real review, not just a find-and-replace.
What's now written directly into the rule
- Valuation rules are explicit. Gifts are valued at cost, excluding tax and delivery — except tickets to sporting or other events, which must be valued at the higher of cost or face value.
- Aggregation is mandatory and must be documented. Firms must aggregate all gifts from the member and its associated persons to a given recipient over the year, and state in procedures whether that's tracked by calendar year, fiscal year, or on a rolling basis.
- Several carve-outs are now codified, including personal gifts tied to life events (weddings, births), bereavement gifts, de minimis items and branded promotional items, and disaster-relief donations — none of which count toward the $300 limit or trigger the recordkeeping requirement.
- Supervisory design is spelled out. Rule 3220.08 requires systems reasonably designed to ensure gifts are reported, reviewed for compliance, and recorded — and makes clear the associated person giving the gift shouldn't be the one deciding whether it's compliant.
- Exemptive relief is now available from FINRA staff for good cause shown, where previously firms had limited options outside the rule's four corners.
How Compliers Can Help
We help firms rebuild written supervisory procedures around exactly this kind of rule change, so the update reflects what's actually in the amended rule text — not a marked-up version of last year's policy. Learn more about our Code of Ethics & Oversight engagement.
The recordkeeping trap
The most common mistake we expect firms to make isn't miscalculating the new limit — it's assuming the carve-outs are self-executing. A "personal" gift is only excluded from the rule if it's genuinely personal in nature and not paid for by the firm; if the member reimburses the associated person, FINRA presumes it's business-related regardless of intent. Firms that don't update their supervisory language to reflect that presumption are likely to keep flagging (or missing) the wrong things.