Personal guarantee PG

## Why it is a separate contract
The business owes under the loan or advance. The guarantor owes under the guarantee. Two contracts, two obligations. That separation is the whole point, and it is why dissolving the LLC, shutting the doors or putting the entity into bankruptcy does not extinguish the guarantee - the entity's discharge is the entity's, not the guarantor's.

## The five variables that decide exposure
- Payment or collection. A guarantee of payment lets the creditor sue the guarantor immediately on default, without first pursuing the business or liquidating collateral. A guarantee of collection requires the creditor to exhaust remedies against the business first. Commercial forms are almost always guarantees of payment.
- Limited or unlimited. A limited guarantee caps exposure at a dollar figure or a percentage tracking ownership. An unlimited guarantee covers the whole obligation plus default interest, late charges, collection costs and attorney fees - which on a contested collection can exceed the original balance.
- Joint and several. Where several owners guarantee jointly and severally, the creditor may recover the entire amount from whichever guarantor has assets, leaving that guarantor to pursue the others at their own expense.
- Continuing. A continuing guarantee attaches to future advances, renewals and modifications, not only to the transaction in front of you, and remains live until revoked in the specific manner the document requires.
- Waivers. Standard forms waive notice, presentment, demand, the right to require the creditor to proceed against collateral first, and often defences arising from the creditor's later dealings with the business - including modifications the guarantor never saw.

## What it reaches
A judgment against a guarantor is enforced by ordinary means: bank account levy, judgment liens on real property, and wage garnishment where state law permits it against an individual. What is exempt is set by state law and varies enormously. Homestead protection is broad in a small number of states and minimal in others; retirement account protection differs; community property rules change the picture for a non-signing spouse. Whether a specific asset can be reached is a state-law question and a fact question, not something a general rule answers.

## In advances
Advance agreements usually attach a performance guarantee rather than a full personal guarantee, because a promise to repay the purchased amount would undermine the purchase characterisation. That distinction is genuine and it is narrower than it sounds - see performance guarantee.