Dave Aamoth is retiring from Edward Jones after 34 years, and there will be a retirement open house on Tuesday, June 13, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Irishman’s Shanty in Crookston. Appetizers and refreshments will be served.
Dave started at Edward Jones in Moorhead before moving to Crookston in 1994. “It has gone fast. When I got into this, I was a teacher and a coach, and Jan’s (his wife) brother started in the early 80s and recruited me. My father was in finance and owned and operated a small town bank in southwest Minnesota, so we decided we would give it a try for about five years, and 34 years later, here we are,” said Aamoth.
There have been a lot of changes over the 34 years. “Computers have made a difference. When I started, they gave us a little plastic box with green recipe cards, and we went out and knocked on doors and visited farm sites, put down people’s names and there land lines since there weren’t cell phones back then, and that was basically our tool kit,” said Aamoth. “Now they are equipped with laptops, and they can work remotely and go visit somebody and pull up their account and all those kinds of things.”
Over the 34 years, Edward Jones has become a household name across the nation, and the market ups and downs have been interesting. “When I came into the firm, the Dow Jones was at 2,300, and everybody thought the market was too high, so we had to do our job and get people into the appropriate investments that were growth-oriented, and that doesn’t come without a little bit of stress. I was in business for about three months, and something happened in the Soviet Union, and the market dropped 7.5 percent in one day, and that was 194 points, and now that is a day at the beach as far as volatility goes,” said Aamoth. “We had the late 90s when the internet was coming onboard, and the dot-com stocks were doing fantastic. We had the housing crisis in 2008 where markets were down 40 percent and had a pretty good 10-year run, and the pandemic hit.”
Edward Jones will still be strong in Crookston. “We will have three financial advisors, and all three have an established practice with Dusty Buse, right next door to KROX, and in the office, I have been occupying, there will be Bryn Seay, and Troy Lindberg will be coming into man that,” said Aamoth. “Sophie Lien will still be there as the Branch Office Administrator, and of course, we had Shawn Brault there for a number of years, and she was there when I got to town.”
Aamoth thanks the clients, friends, and family for their support over the years. “I am very thankful for the loyalty of the clients in the community. Having a supportive wife is really, really important and I have no doubt had that with Jan, and it has been a wonderful run,” said Aamoth. “I will still be around and help on a consultant basis for a while. Thanks to the community, the staff, and my family.”
The retirement open house for Aamoth will be held at the Irishman’s Shanty on Tuesday, June 14, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., and refreshments and appetizers will be served.
