Personal Guarantee Insurance Now Available

As business owners know, most can�t get loans and lines of credit even for corporations without making a personal guarantee that the money will be repaid. That requirement has stopped more than one would-be entrepreneur from pursuing a business dream. And for owners of existing companies, they forgo growth if they don�t want to sign a personal guarantee.

Now there is Asterisk Financial, a personal guarantee insurance for small business owners to protect them from losing everything if a business falters. Here�s how it works: Owners of small to mid-size businesses or commercial real estate projects can buy an annual policy that will cover 30% to 70% of their net liability for loans of $500,000 to $8 million. The premium depends on the business� credit worthiness and can be as low as 1% of the loan value. The policy beneficiaries are the owners of the business.

Asterisk has patented its personal-guarantee insurance underwriting process and won approval to sell it in 39 states so far. It should be available in all 50 states by the end of 2012. (The web site is personalguarantee.com.)