17/11/2021
You've worked hard for your money. You've given your family a certain standard of living. The company you set up has grown and has become your cash cow. Now it's time to relax and enjoy life, knowing for sure that your personal assets and wealth will be kept safe and be shielded away from other people or company creditors by your private limited company.
But is this true? Can your private limited company shield your private and personal assets from company creditors?
A lot of people thought so. This is probably true.
But….if you have ever signed your name as a Personal Guarantor for the Business loan, then the private limited company might not necessarily shield your personal assets away from your creditors or the banks.
The simple reason is this, the personal guarantee (PG) that you've signed do not go away or die if there's no arrangement made. So whenever the company has trouble paying back the loan, or defaulted to service the loan due to cash flow or business problems, the banks can directly ask for payment from you as the Personal Guarantor.
If you do not have the cash to pay, they can access your personal assets to pay for the company loan.
What’s worse, this PG do not die even when we die!!!
Hence, if there's no arrangement made, this PG will continue to remain as long as the loan is not fully paid.
What are some of the arrangements one can consider to discharge this PG (if there is):-
1. to arrange for another guarantor to take over your PG;
2. to have the money ready to make payment whenever necessary;
3. to have the funds ready to discharge the contingent liabilities when something happens to you;
4. to set up legal structures to ring-fence your assets. Do take note of the timeframe needed and cost involved.
Why is it important and absolutely necessary to make these arrangements? Simply to make sure your family can continue to enjoy the standards of living you have created for them. You want to make sure the risk that everything you have provided might be taken away from them in an instant is minimized.
Make sure you talked to your advisors to see what arrangements make sense to you.