SIE Regulatory Framework: Form U4 and U5 Deadlines, CE, Outside Activities and the New $300 Gift Limit

Overview of the Regulatory Framework is the shortest section of the SIE: 9% of the exam, or 7 of the 75 scored questions. It's also the most concrete. Almost every item is a deadline, a dollar limit or a "who must be told" rule, and two of those rules changed in 2026, so the date on your study material matters here more than anywhere else on the outline.

What Section 4 of the SIE outline covers

FINRA's 2025 content outline splits Section 4 into two parts:

• 4.1 Registration and continuing education: registered vs non-registered persons and what each may do, ineligibility, background checks, fingerprinting, statutory disqualification, failing to register an associated person, state registration (blue-sky laws), and the Firm and Regulatory Elements of continuing education
• 4.2 Employee conduct and reportable events: Forms U4 and U5, the consequences of misleading or missing information, customer complaints, red flags, outside business activities, private securities transactions, political contributions, limits on gifts and non-cash compensation, business entertainment, and felonies, financial-related misdemeanors, liens and bankruptcy

Passing the SIE itself registers no one. The SIE overview explains why a second exam through a firm is needed, and how long an SIE pass stays valid.

Registration checks: fingerprints, disqualification and state laws

A few facts anchor 4.1:

• Fingerprinting. SEC Rule 17f-2 requires broker-dealers to have their partners, directors, officers and employees fingerprinted and to submit the prints to the Attorney General for processing. There are exemptions, for example for people who don't sell securities, don't regularly handle securities, money or the original records, and don't supervise those who do
• Statutory disqualification is defined in Section 3(a)(39) of the Securities Exchange Act. It carries its own, shorter Form U4 deadline, shown in the table below, and FINRA Rule 4530 requires firms to report it
• State registration. The SEC's investor.gov notes that every state has its own securities laws, known as blue-sky laws, which among other things license brokerage firms and their brokers. FINRA's Qualification Exam FAQ adds that most states require the Series 63 for individuals who will transact securities business, on top of FINRA's requirements

Form U4 and Form U5: what to file and when

The consequences of misleading filings are in FINRA Rule 1122: no member or associated person may file registration information that's incomplete or inaccurate so as to be misleading, or fail to correct it after notice. What's on these forms is public. Under Rule 8312, BrokerCheck releases information from the most recently filed Forms U4 and U5, among other records.

Short sections reward exact recall, and you can drill the 56 Regulatory Framework questions planned for full SIE prep once it opens.

Reportable events and customer complaints: Rules 4530 and 4513

FINRA Rule 4530 requires a firm to report to FINRA promptly, and no later than 30 calendar days after it knows or should have known, when the firm or an associated person:

• Is found to have violated securities, insurance, commodities, financial or investment-related laws or rules
• Is the subject of a written customer complaint alleging theft, misappropriation of funds or securities, or forgery
• Is named in a regulatory proceeding, or is disciplined, barred or denied registration
• Is indicted for, convicted of, or pleads guilty or no contest to any felony, or to a misdemeanor involving securities, a false oath or report, bribery, perjury, burglary, theft, extortion, forgery, embezzlement or misappropriation, among others
• Is a defendant in securities- or financial-related litigation or arbitration disposed of for more than $15,000, or more than $25,000 when the firm itself is the defendant
• Is subject to a statutory disqualification

Firms also report internal discipline of an associated person involving suspension, termination, or fines or withheld pay over $2,500. Each associated person must promptly tell the firm about the events on the list. Separately, firms send FINRA statistical information on written customer complaints by the 15th day of the month after each calendar quarter, and Rule 4513 requires records of written customer complaints to be kept for at least four years.

Continuing education: the Regulatory Element and the Firm Element

FINRA Rule 1240 sets two programs:

• Regulatory Element: each registered person completes it annually by December 31 for each registration category held. Someone registering for the first time completes it by December 31 of the year after the year they registered. Miss it, and the registration is deemed inactive: the person must stop all registered activity and can't be paid for securities transactions, though trail commissions on earlier business may continue unless the firm prohibits them. A registration that stays inactive for two consecutive years is administratively terminated
• Firm Element: each firm must evaluate its training needs at least annually, write a training plan, and deliver training that covers the person's role and professional responsibility

FINRA's CE page notes that the 2027 Regulatory Element topics have already been published for each registration category.

Outside business activities and private securities transactions, and the October 2027 switch

Two rules are on the 2025 outline, and both still apply today:

Rule 3280's definition leaves out transactions among immediate family members with no selling compensation, personal transactions in investment company and variable annuity securities, and transactions subject to Rule 3210's notice requirements.

What changes on October 25, 2027. FINRA's Regulatory Notice 26-20, published October 26, 2026, adopts new Rule 3290, which replaces Rules 3270 and 3280 effective October 25, 2027. It keeps the split between registered persons and all associated persons, but limits the rule to investment-related activity:

• An outside activity (investment-related, not a securities transaction) needs prior written notice from a registered person
• An outside securities transaction needs prior written notice from an associated person, and the firm's prior written approval if there's selling compensation
• Non-investment-related activities, which the Notice illustrates with refereeing sports games, driving for a car service or bartending on weekends, no longer have to be reported under the rule
• Activity at an unaffiliated registered investment adviser becomes an outside activity rather than a securities transaction

Which rules to expect on the exam. Before October 25, 2027, Rules 3270 and 3280 are the rules in force and the ones the 2025 outline lists, so learn them as described above. From that date, Rule 3290 replaces them. FINRA publishes no date on which Rule 3290 items will appear; its Qualification Exam FAQ says only that it updates items so candidates don't receive outdated information. If you test on or after October 25, 2027, learn the Rule 3290 framework too, and check FINRA's SIE page for a newer outline.

Gifts, non-cash compensation and entertainment: the $300 limit

FINRA's Regulatory Notice 26-05 raised the gift limit in Rule 3220 from $100 to $300 per person per year, effective March 30, 2026, with matching changes to the non-cash compensation limits in Rules 2310, 2320, 2341 and 5110, all of which are on the outline. Older study materials still say $100.

Which figure to expect on the exam. FINRA doesn't publish a date on which a rule change enters the SIE question bank. Its Qualification Exam FAQ says it tracks rule changes so that candidates don't receive items with outdated information, by writing new items, editing existing ones and removing ones that no longer apply. The 2025 outline lists "dollar and value limits for gifts and gratuities" without naming a figure. For any SIE taken after March 30, 2026, learn $300: under FINRA's stated policy, $100 is outdated information.

The rule today:

• Covered: anything of value over $300 a year given to a person, such as an employee of an institutional customer, in relation to the business of that person's employer
• Valuation: at cost, excluding tax and delivery. Tickets to sporting or other events count at the higher of cost or face value
• Aggregation: all gifts from the firm and its associated persons to one recipient are added up over the year
• Not subject to the limit: customary personal gifts for infrequent life events such as a wedding or a birth, bereavement gifts, de minimis items and logo promotional items worth substantially less than $300, decorative items commemorating a business transaction, and donations for federally declared major disasters. The rule also doesn't apply to gifts to the firm's own associated persons or to individual retail customers
• Business entertainment: a gift given during a business entertainment event counts toward the $300 limit, but the Notice says the cost of the entertainment event itself isn't included in the gift's value

The MSRB's Rule G-20 follows the same $300 limit for dealers that are FINRA members as of June 1, 2026. A legacy $100 version applies to municipal advisors and bank dealers only until December 1, 2026. Dollar limits are made for flashcards, and 52 Regulatory Framework flashcards are planned for launch.

Political contributions: MSRB Rule G-37

The outline's "reporting of political contributions and consequences for exceeding dollar contribution thresholds" points to MSRB Rule G-37. A dealer may not do municipal securities business with an issuer for two years after a contribution to an official of that issuer who can influence the choice of dealer, if the contribution came from the dealer, one of its municipal finance professionals, or a political action committee either controls. The exception: a municipal finance professional who is entitled to vote for the official may contribute up to $250 per election in total. The municipal securities guide puts G-37 next to the other MSRB rules on the outline.

A Passy practice question on the gift rule

This question was written by Passy for practice. It isn't a FINRA item.

In May 2026, a registered representative sends a $200 gift basket to a portfolio manager at an institutional client. In November, he wants to give the same portfolio manager two game tickets that cost him $90 but have a face value of $120. He won't attend the game. Under FINRA Rule 3220, may he give the tickets?

A. Yes, because each gift is under $300 B. Yes, because the tickets cost $90, so the year's total is $290 C. No, because tickets count at the higher of cost or face value, bringing the year's total to $320 D. No, because FINRA's limit is $100 per person per year

Keyed answer: C. Gifts to the same recipient are aggregated over the year, so A is wrong. Tickets are valued at the higher of cost or face value, here $120, so B is wrong: $200 + $120 = $320, over the limit. D uses the limit that applied before March 30, 2026. The question says he won't attend the game, so the tickets are simply a gift to the portfolio manager.

Your next step with Section 4

Write the U4/U5 table and the $300 gift rule from memory, and check the date on any source that gives you $100 or the old outside-activity rules after October 2027. The free SIE practice questions give a quick read on all four sections, and the prohibited activities guide covers the conduct rules that sit next to these in Section 3. In the last days before your exam, the Cram plan and Test Day checklist planned for full SIE prep are built for this kind of final review.