Washington Trust Bank
At a Glance
The one bank on this queue that has written the words search fund on its own site; the desk behind the article is a Preferred Lender with named bankers and no acquisition line on its product pages.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Loan products; terms by term sheet. No size, rate, fee or term is published for any business loan; its small business page says the SBA loan comes with business-friendly terms and its commercial page says flexible terms, subject to credit approval.
- Best For
- A buyer in Washington, Idaho or Oregon who wants a Preferred Lender that has written about search funds and buying an existing business in its own voice, and will meet a named small business banker in their city.
- Track Record
- A Spokane bank, the oldest and largest privately held commercial bank in the Northwest by its own story, an SBA Preferred Lender on both loan pages, with twenty-three small business bankers named by city.
- Type
- Bank (lends directly)
- Footprint
- More than forty locations throughout Washington, Idaho and Oregon by its own pages, from Spokane, Washington. It lends beyond the states it names, so one it does not name is worth asking about rather than ruling out.
- Approval Authority
- Says it holds SBA Preferred Lender status, so it can approve the loan itself rather than sending the file to the agency for a second look.
- Deal Size
- $500k to $5M.
- Publishes no floor. Most of this shelf gives a ceiling that is really the agency's own cap, and no minimum at all.
- No amount at either end on any page for any business loan; both loan pages publish no figure at all.
- Searcher Practice
- A general SBA lending desk, branch-driven.
- A contact-a-banker button and a priority service line on the loans page, and a team page of named bankers by city; no online application for the SBA loan.
- Its article on buying an existing business defines a search fund and entrepreneurship through acquisition, puts a small business loan first among the funding sources and sends the buyer to a small business expert. That is an explainer and not a page named for a practice; its product pages name no acquisition use.
- Published Terms
- No size, rate, fee or term for any business loan; business-friendly terms on its small business page and flexible terms on its commercial page, subject to credit approval.
- Roadmap Stages
- 5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Pros and Cons
Pros
- An SBA Preferred Lender on both its small business and commercial loan pages, in its own words
- Its article on buying an existing business defines a search fund and entrepreneurship through acquisition and puts a small business loan, SBA-backed or conventional, first among the funding sources
- Twenty-three small business bankers named with titles and cities on its team page, a priority service line on the loans page, and a dedicated SBA lending team named on its small business hub without a roster
- More than forty locations across Washington, Idaho and Oregon by its own pages, with an expert in the neighborhood in its own words
Cons
- Its product pages name no acquisition use; buying a business appears only in an article under its articles section
- No size, rate, fee or term for any business loan, and no SBA-titled banker
- Its team roster prints no phones, and there is no online application
- Names no searcher desk of its own; the search fund sentence is an explainer, not a practice
What Searchers Say
Read on its small business loans page, its commercial loans page, its two team pages, its locations, story, expertise, newsroom and contact pages, its small business and commercial hubs, its article on buying an existing business and a news item on its commercial lending growth. No searcher-forum discussion of the desk was found.
How to Approach
Washington Trust Bank is a bank, so this is how that kind of lender comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A prequalification on you and the target, often from the first email.
- A full application and the bank's own underwrite of the deal.
- A term sheet, then closing on the SBA's timeline, commonly two to four months.
What It Weighs
- Whether the business's cash flow covers the debt with room to spare.
- Your experience relative to the business you are buying.
- Your equity injection and how clean the financials are.
How to Prepare
- Model the payment and coverage before you call. SBA Acquisition Calculator
- Underwrite the specific deal end to end. Underwrite a Deal
- Show where every dollar comes from and goes. Sources & Uses Builder