When the SOP requires an independent study, what it must demonstrate, and how lenders and borrowers should sequence it — from the firm that has prepared 1,280+ SBA-accepted studies since 1998.
Under SBA SOP 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025 and as subsequently updated, an independent feasibility study is required or strongly indicated whenever historical operating performance cannot, by itself, demonstrate repayment ability. In practice this captures start-up businesses with less than two years of operations, complete changes of ownership, special-purpose and limited-market properties — hotels, gas stations, car washes, marinas, RV resorts, cold storage, assisted living, and similar single-use assets — ground-up construction and substantial expansions, and projects in industries the lender’s credit policy classifies as elevated risk. The unifying principle is simple: where the loan is underwritten on projections rather than history, the SOP expects those projections to be independently tested.
An SBA feasibility study answers the question an appraisal cannot: whether the specific project, at the specific scale, with the specific capital structure and management team, generates sufficient cash flow to service its debt under both base-case and stressed assumptions. Wert-Berater studies are structured around the program’s coverage expectations — a minimum 1.15x operating debt service coverage ratio and 1.00x global coverage — and present a ten-year pro forma, sensitivity analysis at ±5, 10, and 15 percent, interest-rate stress from +0.5 to +3.0 percent, and Monte Carlo simulation, so the underwriter sees not only that the base case clears the minimums but how much adversity the project absorbs before it does not.
Borrowers typically learn a feasibility study is needed when the lender or CDC tells them — usually at the point the credit package is being assembled. Engaging the study early in the application timeline, rather than after underwriting raises the question, routinely saves weeks of loan-cycle time. In SBA and USDA programs, Wert-Berater is engaged by the borrower or through the lender or CDC — institutions apply differing rules, so confirm the required path with your lending contact; in the firm’s experience the borrower most often engages directly, and lender confirmation is obtained before work begins. The firm completes standard studies in 10 to 15 business days from receipt of complete project data, and delivers a report formatted for direct inclusion in the credit file: program citations, ratio tables benchmarked against RMA and industry data, and every assumption stated and sourced.
Under SOP 50 10 8, a feasibility study is required or strongly indicated for start-ups under two years of operations, complete changes of ownership, special-purpose properties such as hotels, gas stations, car washes and marinas, ground-up construction, substantial expansions, and projects underwritten on projections rather than historical performance.
An independent third party with no financial stake in the project. Wert-Berater, Inc. has prepared independent feasibility studies since 1998, with fiduciary duty to the lender, CDC, and SBA rather than the borrower.
SBA programs look for a minimum 1.15x operating debt service coverage ratio and 1.00x global coverage. A credible study demonstrates these under base-case and stressed assumptions, not only at a single stabilized point.
Independent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $40.2 billion in evaluated project value, all 50 states. Fiduciary duty to the lender and agency.