Model Early Stage SBIC Limited Partnership Agreement

Early Stage SBICs are permitted to use debenture leverage only. The Model has been prepared by SBA to assist applicants for Early Stage SBIC licenses. The Model is designed to provide a basic form of agreement that an Early Stage SBIC applicant can use by adding a limited number of provisions to adapt the Model to their own individual situation.

SBA has developed the Model as part of its effort to make the SBIC program more accessible to new applicants and increase the efficiency of the SBIC licensing process.

The Model will help reduce the time and expense to applicants in preparing an agreement of limited partnership for an Early Stage SBIC, by providing applicants and their advisors with a working model of this complex legal agreement that they can use to create their own document. This should prove particularly helpful to new applicants who are not familiar with legal agreements of this type.

For applicants who use the Model in the manner described in this Note, SBA expects that the Model will reduce the time required for the review of an applicant’s legal documentation. Because the Model provides a standard set of customary basic provisions required in a limited partnership agreement, SBA staff will be able to focus their attention on the more limited number of specific provisions added to the Model by an applicant.