What happens to a personal guarantee I gave if the deal is structured through a newco?

A personal guarantee doesn't disappear just because the corporation making the purchase is a newly formed newco — a guarantee is a personal promise you made to a specific lender, landlord, or vendor take-back seller, and it stays in effect according to its own terms regardless of what entity is actually holding the assets or making payments.

This actually matters more, not less, when a newco is involved. Lenders, landlords, and sellers financing part of the price are often asked to rely on a freshly incorporated corporation with no operating history, no established credit, and few assets of its own — which is exactly the situation where they're most likely to insist on your personal guarantee as a condition of dealing with the newco at all. Using a newco as the buyer doesn't reduce your personal exposure; if anything, it's often the reason a guarantee is required in the first place.

If you're hoping a newco structure limits your personal risk, that protection needs to come from negotiating the guarantee itself — its scope, its duration, and any release conditions — rather than from the corporate structure around it. A business lawyer can review exactly what you're being asked to guarantee before you sign.