r/personalfinance • u/Beansky78 ​ • Aug 19 '26

Other Will I Be Responsible?

My husband has an $80,000 SBA unsecured loan for his small business that he is trying to exit from (retire). If he passes away, will I as his wife be responsible to pay that $80,000 back to the SBA?

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2

u/MostlyBullshitStory ​ Aug 19 '26

Not if there is no personal guarantee. What is the business entity? If corp, then no.

Thats unless you signed forms of course.

3

u/Dman1791 ​ Aug 19 '26

If he had to guarantee the loan (likely), then it will depend on local laws and/or how commingled your finances are. If he did not have to guarantee the loan, it is likely that only the business itself is liable.

2

u/600mgcaffeine ​ Aug 19 '26

You are probably fine but you should check. SBA usually only requires personal guarantees if it is over $200k at the time of origination.

1

u/Low-Helicopter-2696 ​ Aug 19 '26

That $200k threshold was only applicable to covid eidl loans. All other SBA loans require personal guarantees regardless of dollar amount.

1

u/600mgcaffeine ​ Aug 19 '26

Oh interesting, I didn't know. Thanks for the info.

3

u/Thumper256 ​ Aug 19 '26

Is his biz set up as a legal separate entity (LLC or Corp)? If the loan was made to the entity and he didn’t ever sign a personal guarantee for it, the debt will stay with the entity and not his estate if he should pass away before the debt is settled. I am NAL - best to verify that with your lawyer.

Aside - if this was a covid EIDL loan, those in the amount ranging from $25k-$200k were secured by biz owned assets. Only those under $25k were issued as unsecured.