Personal guarantee guides, before you sign
Plain-English guides for borrowers, spouses, lenders, and advisors who want to understand personal guarantee exposure before it becomes a closing-day surprise.
Start with the guide that matches the question you're trying to answer.
What are you trying to understand?
What am I signing?
Learn what a personal guarantee is and how business debt can become personal exposure.
Read the guide →Is this an SBA loan?
Understand SBA personal guarantee requirements, who usually signs, and what the SBA guaranty does not protect.
Read the guide →What happens if it defaults?
See how default, business recovery, deficiencies, enforcement, settlement, and federal collection can fit together.
Read the guide →What assets could matter?
Understand home equity, cash, investments, retirement accounts, spouse issues, title, liens, exemptions, and state law.
Read the guide →Can the exposure be insured?
Learn where Personal Guarantee Insurance may fit, what it does, and what it does not change.
Read about PGI →The personal guarantee library
These are the core guides borrowers should read before signing a personal guarantee.
Lessons from 15 Acquiring Minds episodes about deals gone wrong
What happened when the acquisition failed, and what the personal guarantee did next: 15 public cases coded for financing, guarantee status, and outcome, in the buyers’ own words.
Read the research →What is a personal guarantee?
A plain-English guide to how a personal guarantee can move business debt onto your personal balance sheet.
Best forBorrowers who want the basic concept before reviewing loan documents.
Read the guide → Guide · SBA LoansSBA loan personal guarantees, explained
Learn who usually signs, what the SBA guaranty does and does not protect, and why the guarantee survives closing.
Best forSBA 7(a) borrowers, spouses, searchers, and acquisition entrepreneurs.
Read the guide → Guide · DefaultWhat happens if an SBA loan defaults?
A practical overview of default, business recovery, deficiencies, personal guarantee enforcement, settlement, and federal collection risk.
Best forBorrowers who want to understand the downside path before signing.
Read the guide → Guide · AssetsWhat assets are at risk with a personal guarantee?
Understand what assets may matter, what may be harder to reach, and how state law, title, liens, spouse issues, and exemptions affect exposure.
Best forBorrowers and spouses thinking through the family balance sheet.
Read the guide →A better order to think about the risk
Personal guarantee risk is easier to understand in sequence: first the document, then the loan, then the failure path, then the personal balance sheet.
Understand the guarantee
Start with what a personal guarantee is and why it can become personal.
02Understand the SBA version
If the loan is SBA-backed, learn who usually signs and what the SBA guaranty actually means.
03Understand the downside path
Look at what can happen after default, business recovery, deficiency, and enforcement.
04Estimate the reachable gap
Then think through assets, state law, spouse issues, and what may remain after business recovery.
Where insurance may fit
Personal Guarantee Insurance does not remove the guarantee or change lender requirements. It is separate borrower-side insurance designed around the gap that can remain after business recovery.
Coverage depends on underwriting, state availability, exclusions, limits, documentation, and policy terms.
Ask the question we haven’t answered yet
We’re building this library around real borrower, spouse, lender, and advisor questions. If there’s a personal guarantee topic you want explained, send it to us.
Signing a personal guarantee?
Understand the exposure before you sign.