Key Takeaways
For 34 years the FINRA gift limit sat at $100 per person per year. On March 30, 2026 it rose to $300. FINRA used the same change to write decades of guidance into the rule itself. It now covers what counts, how gifts are valued and what is excluded. For ETF issuers that use incentives in advisor outreach, the room to work in tripled and the rules around it became clearer.
The change does not alter who the rule covers or why it exists. It binds FINRA member firms and their associated persons. In ETF distribution, that usually means the fund's distributor and its registered wholesalers. It still exists to stop gifts from steering business. The way an incentive is structured matters as much as its size.
We advise asset managers on compliant outreach through business consulting engagements, and meeting incentives come up in most of them. This post covers what changed, how gifts are counted, what is excluded, and how to structure a meeting incentive inside the limit. It is written for marketing and compliance teams at financial services firms and is not legal advice.
What Is the FINRA Gift Limit in 2026?
The FINRA gift limit is $300 per person per year under Rule 3220. FINRA raised it from $100 in Regulatory Notice 26-05, effective March 30, 2026, the first change since 1992. Rule 3220 bars a member firm or its people from giving anything of value above that amount, directly or indirectly. It applies when the gift relates to the business of the recipient's employer.
FINRA set the new figure to absorb inflation since 1992 and expects $300 to hold for about 10 years. The same notice raised the limit to $300 in four related rules. One of them is Rule 2341, which covers non-cash compensation tied to investment company securities.
The rule does not apply to gifts to a firm's own people or to individual retail customers. Its target is the employee of another business, such as an institutional customer, a vendor or a counterparty. For an ETF distributor, that includes advisors at RIAs and broker-dealers.
How Are Gifts Valued and Counted Toward the FINRA Gift Limit?
Gifts are valued at cost, excluding tax and delivery. Tickets to sporting or other events are valued at the higher of cost or face value. Secondary-market prices often differ from face value. Every gift the firm and its associated persons give one recipient is added together over the year. The firm's procedures must say whether that year is calendar, fiscal or rolling.
Aggregation is the part that catches outreach programs. Take one advisor who receives a wholesaler's holiday gift, a conference giveaway that is not a logo item, and a meeting incentive from an email campaign. All three count toward the same $300. Gifts to several people at once are recorded by name and valued per recipient on a pro rata basis.
Business entertainment is treated separately. A gift handed out at a dinner or event counts toward the limit, but the cost of the event itself does not.
These rules govern the firm giving the gift, and a firm's own policy can set a lower limit than the rule. An RIA's own code of ethics may also restrict what its advisors can accept, whatever FINRA allows the giver.
Which Gifts Are Excluded From the FINRA Gift Limit?
Six categories sit outside both the limit and the recordkeeping requirement. Three are small or symbolic: de minimis gifts, logo items of nominal value, and decorative items marking a business transaction. The other three are personal: gifts for infrequent life events, customary bereavement gifts, and donations for losses in a federally declared major disaster. Each comes with conditions.
The personal-gift exclusion is narrower than it looks. When the firm pays for a gift, directly or by reimbursing an employee, FINRA presumes it is related to business and not personal.
For outreach teams, the useful exclusions are the small ones. A branded notepad handed out at a conference needs no log. An expensive item does not become promotional because it carries the firm's logo, since promotional items must be of nominal value, substantially below the $300 limit.
Can an ETF Issuer Offer a Charitable Donation for an Advisor Meeting?
It can, if the program is built to fit the rule. Regulatory Notice 26-05 does not address donations of this kind. The rule covers anything of value given directly or indirectly. A donation to a charity the advisor picks, made because the advisor took a meeting, is connected to the advisor's work. The conservative approach is to count it toward the $300 limit and log it. Clear the program with the distributor's compliance team first.
In Defiance Analytics campaigns, the mechanic works like this. The issuer offers a fixed donation, typically $100, to a charity of the advisor's choice once a short meeting has taken place. A rewards platform such as Tremendous lets the advisor choose the charity, and the money never passes to the advisor. The offer sits late in a sequence and supports the ask for a conversation. Advisor emails should still ask for a reply rather than a click.
Some firms bar their advisors from accepting incentives of any kind. A short line saying the donation is subject to the advisor's own firm policy keeps the offer clean for those readers.
What Records Does the FINRA Gift Rule Require?
Firms need systems for business-related gifts to other firms' employees. Each gift must be reported to the firm, reviewed for compliance with the rule, and kept in the firm's records. The person giving a gift cannot be the one who decides whether it is business-related. Excluded gifts need no records under the rule, though a firm may choose to log them anyway.
For an outreach program, the incentive log belongs in the distributor's compliance system. There it can be added to every other gift the same advisor received. When an incentive runs inside a cold email campaign, key the log to the contact record the sequence uses. Each payout can then be traced to the meeting that triggered it.
A marketing partner that runs incentives should hand compliance a complete log without being asked. What to expect from a partner on that front is covered in the guide to selecting FINRA-compliant marketing partners.
Closing Notes
The FINRA gift limit is now $300 per person per year. Regulatory Notice 26-05 also wrote valuation, aggregation, exclusions and recordkeeping into the rule itself. For advisor outreach, that means more room for a meeting incentive and fewer grey areas about how it is counted. A charitable donation for a completed meeting fits inside the limit when it is treated as a gift, kept well under $300 and logged.
Our campaigns build the incentive, the trigger and the log into the sequence before it launches. Book a demo to see how a compliant meeting incentive fits your advisor outreach.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the FINRA gift limit in 2026? It is $300 per person per year under FINRA Rule 3220, effective March 30, 2026, up from the $100 limit set in 1992. It covers gifts from member firms and their associated persons to employees of other businesses, not to retail customers.
Does a charitable donation count toward the FINRA gift limit? FINRA's notice excludes only donations for losses in a federally declared major disaster. It does not address a donation made because an advisor took a meeting. The conservative approach is to count it toward the limit and log it.
Are business meals and events included in the $300 limit? The cost of business entertainment is not counted as a gift. A gift handed out during the event does count toward the limit. The exception is an excluded item, such as a de minimis or logo item.
Does the FINRA gift rule apply to gifts given to RIA advisors? Yes, when the giver is a FINRA member or associated person, such as a distributor's wholesaler. The advisor is an employee or principal of another business. The RIA's own code of ethics may also limit what its advisors accept.
Bottom Line
- The FINRA gift limit rose from $100 to $300 per person per year on March 30, 2026, and it covers every gift a firm's people give one recipient.
- Six categories are excluded, including de minimis and logo items, but a firm-paid gift is presumed business-related rather than personal.
- A charitable donation for a completed advisor meeting is safest treated as a gift, kept well under $300 and logged by the distributor.
Continue Learning
In This Series:
- AI Content Creation Under FINRA Compliance Rules: Which FINRA and SEC rules apply to AI-drafted marketing, and how to build an approval workflow for it.
- Why FINRA Compliance Makes ETF Marketing Attribution More Critical: How to find out which compliant wording performs best inside regulatory limits.
