But patb’s experience is typical: most banks see through the aims of the entity and make the owners (partners, members, shareholders, etc) sign personal guarantees to make sure they get their money if things go south.
I wouldn’t say ‘see through’.. I would say that banks try to circumvent the protection allowed by a corporate entity by trying to get the company principals to pledge assets/guarantees against the loan (ie. act as co-signers). Depending upon size of entity, net asset value of corp and historical earnings, you can tell them to pound sand when they do this and threaten to walk. Banks want to get their fingers on as many assets as possible should things go bad and try to charge as much interest on any loan that the can. They also have to lend money to make money.. They don’t lend, they don’t make money.
