Client Gift Limits by Industry, 2026: Federal Employees, FINRA, RESPA, Insurance, Title, Bar Rules, Medicare

We sell a $35 logo mug gift box, printed, packed and shipped to each person's address, so we have a stake in these rules. This page quotes each rule and does not tell you what you may give or accept.

Key facts (each re-read at the source on October 29, 2026):

• Federal employees: "$20 or less per source per occasion", and no more than $50 a year from one person (5 CFR 2635.204(a)).
• Broker-dealers: no gift "in excess of $300 per individual per year" to another firm's people, since March 30, 2026 (FINRA Rule 3220).
• Mortgage and settlement services: "There is no exception to RESPA Section 8 solely based on the value of the gift or promotion" (CFPB RESPA FAQs).
• Insurance agents: "not exceeding twenty-five dollars in value" in New York (Ins. Law §2324(a)); up to $250 a year in North Carolina (G.S. 58-63-16).

Part of our gift rules and taxes section: every rule quoted from the source and dated.

Client Gift Limits by Industry: The One-Table Answer

Some rules bind the person who receives (government staff, company policies), others the person who gives. RESPA binds both. Read the row for each side of your gift.

When the Recipient's Rules Decide: Government Staff and Company Policies

"An employee may accept unsolicited gifts having an aggregate market value of $20 or less per source per occasion, provided that the aggregate market value of individual gifts received from any one person under the authority of this paragraph (a) does not exceed $50 in a calendar year." … "the employee may not pay the excess value over $20 in order to accept that portion of the gift or those gifts worth $20."

The rule's own Example 2: an employee is given "a framed map with a market value of $18 and a ceramic mug that has a market value of $15. The employee may accept the map or the mug, but not both, because the aggregate value of these two tangible items exceeds $20."

5 CFR 2635.204(a) (eCFR, up to date as of October 27, 2026). Read October 29, 2026.

State and local rules differ. New York's General Municipal Law bars a municipal officer or employee from accepting "any gift having a value of seventy-five dollars or more" when it "could reasonably be inferred that the gift was intended to influence him" (N.Y. Gen. Mun. Law §805-a).

Company gift policies. The most recent survey we found is old. In a 2013 survey by SAI Global, a compliance-software company, reported by Ogletree (2014), "35 percent of companies require that corporate gifts be" modest, "defined as under $25"; 22 percent "capped the value on permissible gifts at $50 or $100"; 54 percent "do not impose strict limits".

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or check with the recipient's agency ethics official or employer) before you send.

When Your Own Industry's Rules Decide

Broker-dealers: FINRA Rule 3220, $300 since March 30, 2026

No gift "in excess of $300 per individual per year to any person, principal, proprietor, employee, agent or representative of another person where such payment or gratuity is in relation to the business of the employer of the recipient of the payment or gratuity." … "This Rule does not apply to gifts from a member to its own associated persons, or to gifts from a member or an associated person to individual retail customers."

FINRA Rule 3220(a) and .09, version "Mar 30, 2026 onwards". Read October 29, 2026.

The limit was $100 until March 29, 2026 (Regulatory Notice 26-05). Timeline and valuation: FINRA Rule 3220 explained.

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or ask your firm's compliance officer) before you send.

Mortgage, title, inspections, agents and attorneys: RESPA Section 8

"There is no exception to RESPA Section 8 solely based on the value of the gift or promotion."

CFPB RESPA FAQs, Gifts and Promotional Activity, FAQ 1 (updated Oct 7, 2020; read Oct 29, 2026)

Regulation X lists title services, "(5) Rendering of services by an attorney", inspections and "(14) Rendering of services by a real estate agent or real estate broker" as settlement services (12 CFR 1024.2(b)). So a law firm's thank-you to a realtor who sends it closings is a RESPA question too. Asked whether a provider can give a consumer a gift "for using that lender or provider", the CFPB answers "Generally, yes", and says RESPA Section 8 prohibits "giving an incentive to a consumer in exchange for the consumer referring other business" (RESPA Section 8 General, FAQ 6). More: RESPA Section 8 and gifts.

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or ask your broker, counsel or compliance officer) before you send.

Insurance agents and title companies: state caps from $5 to $250

New York: "other than any valuable consideration, including but not limited to merchandise or periodical subscriptions, not exceeding twenty-five dollars in value" (Ins. Law §2324(a)).

Texas: "an item that is a promotional advertising item, educational item, or traditional courtesy commonly extended to consumers and that is valued at $25 or less" (Ins. Code §4005.053(d)).

Florida: items "having a total value of $100 or less per insured or prospective insured in any calendar year" (Fla. Stat. §626.9541(1)(m)1.a, 2026 Florida Statutes).

Read October 29, 2026.

North Dakota allows gifts up to "an aggregate retail value of one hundred dollars per person per year" (NDCC §26.1-04-06(2)); Washington, "not exceeding $100 in value in the aggregate per person in any 12-month period" (Washington OIC; RCW 48.30.150(1)(c)); North Carolina, "two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) per person per year" (G.S. 58-63-16). For policies "issued, renewed, or amended on or after" January 1, 2027, that section is repealed and a rewritten G.S. 58-63-15(8) allows noncash gifts costing up to "two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00) per policy term" (S.L. 2025-45, §6; S.L. 2025-97, §6.11). Other states: unverified here. The conditions each state attaches: insurance agent client gifts.

Title and escrow companies giving to agents face lower figures:

Washington: a title company "may give a thing of value with its preprinted company logo, except money or gift cards, to a producer if the cost to the title company is five dollars or less per thing of value" (WAC 284-29-225).

California: "Expenditures for the following are not deemed to be unlawful" include "Promotional items with a permanently affixed company logo … with a value of not more than ten dollars ($10) each", while "Expenditures for food, beverages, and entertainment for a person" are among the "per se inducements" (Ins. Code §12404(d)(1) and (c)(8)).

Florida: a title agent or insurer may give, "for the purpose of advertising, any article of merchandise having a value of not more than $25" (Fla. Stat. §626.9541(1)(m)2).

Read October 29, 2026.

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or check with your state's insurance department or your compliance officer) before you send.

Health Care: Medicare Patients and Referring Physicians

"we are interpreting "nominal value" as having a retail value of no more than $15 per item or $75 in the aggregate per patient on an annual basis. As with our previous interpretation, the items may not be cash or cash equivalents."

HHS OIG, Policy Statement Regarding Gifts of Nominal Value to Medicare and Medicaid Beneficiaries (2016). Read October 29, 2026.

For an entity's gifts to physicians, CMS updates the Stark nonmonetary-compensation limit yearly: "for the calendar year beginning January 1, 2026, the compensation limit for the exception at § 411.357(k) is $535" (CMS). The Anti-Kickback Statute is a separate law.

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or ask your compliance officer or health care counsel) before you send.

Lawyers and CPAs: Tests, Not Dollar Figures

ABA Model Rule 7.2(b)(5): a lawyer may "give nominal gifts as an expression of appreciation that are neither intended nor reasonably expected to be a form of compensation for recommending a lawyer's services". Comment [4]: "The gift may not be more than a token item as might be given for holidays, or other ordinary social hospitality."

AICPA ET 1.285.010.04: "If a covered member offers a gift or entertainment to an attest client that is not reasonable in the circumstances, the threat to the member's compliance with the 'Independence Rule' would not be at an acceptable level" … "Accordingly, independence would be impaired."

ABA Comment on Rule 7.2 (read October 29, 2026 in a browser on americanbar.org); AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, updated through September 2026.

Each state adopts its own version of the ABA rule. Neither text names a dollar amount.

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or check your state's version of the rule) before you send.

Banks: Reg DD's $10 "Bonus"

"(f) Bonus means a premium, gift, award, or other consideration worth more than $10 (whether in the form of cash, credit, merchandise, or any equivalent) given or offered to a consumer during a year in exchange for opening, maintaining, renewing, or increasing an account balance."

Regulation DD, 12 CFR 1030.2(f). Read October 29, 2026.

The official interpretation lists "Coffee mugs, T-shirts or other merchandise with a market value of $10 or less" among items that are not bonuses (comment 2(f)). A holiday thank-you not tied to any account activity isn't expressly addressed.

This is information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rule (or ask your compliance officer) before you send.

A 2-Minute Pre-Send Checklist

1. Who receives it? Government staff, a company with a gift policy, a Medicare patient: check their limit first.
2. Who gives it? If your trade has its own rule, read its row above.
3. Is the recipient a referral source? In settlement services, RESPA has no value exception.
4. What else did they get from you this year? FINRA and four of the insurance states count gifts over a period.
5. Is anything tied to a purchase, renewal, account or referral? Several texts turn on exactly that.
6. Keep a record: recipient, date, item, cost.

For the tax side, see are client gifts tax deductible?; for whole-trade guides, client gifts by profession.

What to Know Before You Order

• Gift limits. Each box is $35, delivered: the mug, the treats, the gift box, the card, the packing and the shipping, in one figure. Some employers and industries cap the gifts their people may accept; the limits are quoted above, each from its source.
• Where we ship. The lower 48 states and Washington, DC, except Texas for now. No Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, other US territories, APO/FPO or international. The order page flags any row we can't ship to, so you can fix it or take it out.

Where Personalized Gifts Delivered Fits: One Price, One Box Per Person, One Record

Personalized Gifts Delivered sends a $35 logo mug gift box to each person's own address, from one address list. No minimum: one box is a complete order, with no setup fee and no sales tax added at checkout. You see the mug and every person's card before you pay.

When the boxes ship, you get one email with a spreadsheet of recipient, ship date, carrier, tracking number and $35 per box: one row per person, an itemized record for your files. Every box on an order holds the same things: an 11 oz logo mug, Ghirardelli premium hot cocoa, 4 Lindt LINDOR milk chocolate truffles, a matte-black gift box with a magnetic lid and your printed card. What's in the box and what the price includes: our FAQ.