The Formynder Field Manual

June 2026

From the Field

As I begin to type this out, there are so many thoughts rolling around in my head: a wedding around the corner, the firm turned one, a military money nerd conference, and a growing number of clients to serve. To say that my organizational skills have been tested would be an understatement, but who wouldn't want to be doing all of these things?

That said, I feel it is important to begin with something I read in another newsletter that resonated with me. Each month, I type this letter out by hand because I like to write and to connect with all of you in an authentic way. I feel a hand-typed newsletter is bound to have gramtical errors (see what I did there), no matter how many times I go back and reread my content. Call it endearing, but I think the errors make this newsletter more genuine. (Have you heard me screw up a pun on my podcast?)

Turns out, other newsletter publishers I follow have the same endearing problem. Quite frankly, it felt good to know that I am not alone, and I could probably embrace my errors a bit more proudly.

So if you find one of my easter eggs, feel free to drop me a line at omen@4myndr.com, just for the smile.

The BLUF

I know you'll want to read the entire newsletter, but here's a preview of what's included in this month's shorter edition: (I mentioned I was busy...)

✅ Feel Good Moments. It was another big month!

✅ Some Overdue Resources for You

✅ Happy Birthday to Me! (Well, my firm, actually.)

✅ Form 5498? I filed my taxes already! ...Or did I?

✅ In plain site. Some of the other places you'll find my musings.

Feel Good Moments

For those of you new to my newsletter, I like to start with gratitude - identifying those moments in my life that make every day I wake up totally worth it. In most months, I describe one event or accomplishment. I just can't do that this month. I cannot think of one single thing to be thankful for. So instead, I'll list three!

Formynder Wealth Management turned the corner on one year, on May 14th!
I got to hang out with all the cool kids (including my wife!) at MilMoneyCon 2026 in Savannah, GA for a week!
I'm preparing for my youngest son's wedding, just days away from you reading this!

I'll save the wedding details for next month and my reflections on year one in business for the rest of this newsletter.

Hanging out with my new "tribe beyond the uniform" always brings me joy. This was my 4th year attending MilMoneyCon, a streak that started before my military retirement. This year, I really saw the chain of experience and mentorship stretching from advisors and business owners who started a few years ago, to people like me, to those still in uniform. That is exactly why this conference exists, and I am grateful to Lacey Langford for her vision to build a window into this profession of serving the military community through education and entrepreneurship.

If you or someone you know is interested in exploring financial planning as an advisor, tax professional, paraplanner, back-office admin, or client service associate, reach out at omen@4myndr.com and plan to attend MilMoneyCon 2027 in Salt Lake City, UT, April 21-24!

Notable Client Resources

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A Year Worth Writing About

As a new business owner, I have to admit something to you... I'm a lurker. Yes, I quietly follow other advisors to see what works and what doesn't, what I like and what I don't like. Recently, an advisor I've been following published her 10 year business anniversary blog. (An awesome read, BTW!) I thought, what a great way to document the growth and changes within the firm.

So, here we go - year 1, down! Enjoy me getting real with you (as if I would write any differently!).

The Goal of Getting Going

There is a lot to unpack. Starting a business is one of those things that looks terrifying from the outside and then you are in it and you realize, okay, this is hard but it is not impossible. Scary? Yes. Undoable? No.

Formynder Wealth Management was formed from two pain points I could not overcome working for someone else, anybody else. First, I faced the potential of trying to serve more clients than I felt I had the ability to serve, well. Or at least what I defined to be, "served well". So, I wanted to limit the number of households I served.

Second, having this weird sense of loyalty to people in positions of authority, (ekhem…not sure where that came from), I also had a really difficult time limiting myself to 40 hours per week, particularly when the work load was quite demanding and I was still in my core learning years. I realize this was probably a me problem, but a problem nonetheless. I simply felt I was letting clients down if I didn't get the work done, no matter how long it took. Other areas of my life began to suffer as a consequence.

There's really only one way to resolve these two pain points while continuing to do the work; you need control. And to have control, you need to be the boss.

You might ask, well, why didn't I simply go work for a smaller firm with a similar philosophy? (I'll just note here that I think it will be interesting to reread this a few years from now.) I've formed an opinion around any firm that hires. That when you hire someone like me, as a planner, there is an expectation of business growth - said or unsaid. I'm sure that there is a multi-planner firm out there where 40-50 client households for every planner is perfect and no one really cares about the "up and/or out" model of eventual equity ownership in a business that is never really growing. I just haven't found it. Perhaps I am naive that I can maintain a business that also caps it's growth, but that's where I'm at today.

Flying and Building the Plane

A year ago, I was sitting at breakfast with other members of the Military Financial Advisors Association on the first day of MilMoneyCon when an email pinged my inbox: The Commonwealth of Virginia approved Formynder Wealth Management, LLC as a Registered Investment Advisor! Between that approval and a waiting client ready to go, it was one of the best feelings in the world.

I set a goal of five client households by December 2025 and that is exactly what happened. When I set that target, I genuinely was not sure if I was being bold or foolish. Looking back, it was the right number. Ambitious enough to keep me focused, small enough to seem achievable.

The first 90 days were a lot of experimenting. On the marketing side, I really didn’t have a playbook other than to make a lot of spaghetti, throw it against the wall, and see what stuck. I tried things, watched what landed, adjusted, and tried again.

I was also working through what the client experience should actually look like. That balance took more thought than I expected. I wanted clients to feel the value of what they were paying for without drowning them in complexity. Too simple and they wonder what they signed up for. Too complicated and you have lost them before the work even begins. I am still refining that balance, if I am being honest. I doubt I'll ever stop, really. For both marketing and client experience, I have Michael Reynolds to thank. His generosity in these areas is unmatched.

There's No Quitting On People Cheering For You

What made those early months manageable were my first few clients. They were encouraging in ways I did not see coming. They referred people. They told me what this relationship meant to them. When you are building something from scratch and the people you are serving are genuinely cheering you on, it changes the whole experience. It is hard to quit when people believe in what you are doing.

My broader community showed up too. Several advisors offered me part-time paraplanning work just to keep my skills sharp while the client base was still growing. Their kindness is something I'll never forget. It's something I can only hope to pay it forward, perhaps through this article.

I would be leaving out the most important part of this story if I did not talk about my wife. She was all in from day one. Not the kind of all in where someone says the right things and quietly hopes for the best. Genuinely all in. She kept me grounded when things were going well and when they were not. In the valleys and on the hills, she never doubted me. Not once. That kind of support is something you can’t manufacture. I am a better advisor, a better business owner, and honestly a better person because of her.

The Gift of Going Second

One of the best things I did before launching was stay plugged into the Military Financial Advisors Association and actually listen to the advisors who were willing to talk about what years one through three looked like for them. Not the highlight reel. The real stuff. The frustrations, the mistakes, the business rules they wished they had set earlier. I took those lessons seriously and built a few simple rules around them. It is genuinely hard to measure how much frustration and wasted time that saved me, but it was a lot. If you are in this profession, or any other profession, and not connected to a community like that, find one. And hopefully, maybe, there's someone thinking about starting their own firm reading this who might be able to avoid a few more frustrations.

Protecting the Balance (Mostly)

I also made a commitment early on to protect my balance. PT is a must almost every day. Running, biking, church. I tried to limit how much this work touched my evenings and weekends. The honest problem with that plan is that I love what I do. So the lines blur, but in the best possible way. When you are working with clients you genuinely care about, it stops feeling like work most of the time. I do not take that for granted.

I Told You So

It turns out, experience pays off, or leaning on other people's experience anyway. While focusing my efforts on marketing and committing to a specific niche of serving Active Duty Military 3-5 years from retirement, retirees, and their families, the right clients started coming through. The ones who fit and I knew I could serve well. (Yes, you!) The process actually worked! And with that kind of focus, I had no problem passing a few incompatible prospective clients to advisors and coaches who could serve them better than I could. That still feels good every single time.

Have It Your Way

This was actually one of my favorite learning areas this year. I learned what it means to build something that's actually mine. For instance, I started with a tiered fee schedule because that's what everyone else was doing. (I’d probably jump off a bridge too.) Not long after I started, I scrapped it for a flat-fee model. Easier to explain, harder for clients to accept sometimes, but it's the right fit for how I work and who I serve.

Other areas I changed… early on I fiercely guarded both Mondays and Fridays. Now it's just Mondays. In my marketing, if a blog post doesn't go out because life happened, and I need to prioritize client work or a meeting, that's fine. If a week of content gets skipped because I needed to be somewhere else, no problem. Getting comfortable with that kind of flexibility has been its own journey and really, I'm still on it, but it’s still awesome.

Here's to Year Two

To you, reading this right now: you are part of this story. Trusting me to be clients, making referrals, and the kind words has meant more than you know. I am doing what I love, and a big part of why that is true is because of who I get to do it with. Without you, Formynder Wealth Management wouldn't exist.

Sincerely, thank you.

Form 5498: 'That Guy' Who Is Always Late

Every May, a form arrives in the mail from an IRA custodian. Tax season is already over. The return is filed. And now there is a piece of IRS paperwork sitting on the counter.

That is Form 5498. And no, nothing was done wrong.

Form 5498 arrives in May on purpose. IRA contributions for a given tax year can be made all the way up to the April filing deadline, so custodians are not required to send the form until after that window closes. The IRS gets a copy too. Think of it less as a tax filing and more as a receipt confirming what went into a retirement account during the year.

What is actually on it?

The form reports IRA contributions, rollovers, Roth conversions, and the account's fair market value as of December 31. If a TSP or old employer plan was rolled into an IRA during the year, that shows up here. So does a flag indicating whether a required minimum distribution will apply next year.

Does it need to be filed?

No. Nothing needs to be done with it from a filing standpoint. The custodian already handled that.

Then why does it matter?

Because the IRS is already looking at it. If what the custodian reported does not match what was claimed on a tax return, that gap gets noticed. It is also the primary record of Roth IRA contributions, which matters years down the road when tax-free withdrawals need to be substantiated.

Review it. Confirm the numbers look right. Then file it with the rest of your tax documents and keep it for future reference. For Roth IRA holders especially, those forms are worth keeping indefinitely.

For clients whose investments are managed by Formynder Wealth Management through Altruist, Form 5498s are already downloaded for you. That said, maintaining a personal copy is still a good habit, particularly if accounts are ever moved or consolidated down the road.

For more detail on Form 5498, check out my article below.

In Plain 'Site'

Check out my latest articles:

Check out the Fiscal Foxhole podcast with myself and Rob Moore - we're out every Wednesday morning!

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided for educational, general information, and illustration purposes only. Nothing contained in this material constitutes tax advice, a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, or investment advisory services. I encourage you to consult a financial planner, accountant, and/or legal counsel for advice specific to your situation.

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Your June 2026 Formynder Field Manual Newsletter