By Annie Gasparro

Ameriprise Financial inc.’s advisers are reaping the benefits of tax season this year through a partnership with H&R Block inc. that has client referrals flowing their way.

H&R Block sees roughly 20 million clients seeking tax advice each year, and about 4 million of those clients have investible assets that make them potential candidates for Ameriprise advisers.

H&R Block tax advisers and Ameriprise financial advisers connected paths when Ameriprise acquired H&R Block’s 1,000 advisers in November 2008.

“We’ve kept our relationship with H&R Block in place to allow our advisers to work with the tax professionals and form a business alliance,” said Dave Geschke, senior vice president of the Ameriprise Advisor Group, overseeing the Western half of the country for the group.

Ameriprise Advisor Group is the firm’s traditional brokerage, or employee channel, including about 2,400 advisers, as opposed to its independent franchise business, which boasts 7,800 brokers. the Advisor Group is encouraged to refer their clients to H&R Block for tax advice, and in turn receive client referrals from the tax professionals.

Ameriprise advisers mainly target mass affluent clients, which are those with $100,000 to $1 million in investible assets. this is a fairly common range for brokerage firms to go after, though many of the major wirehouses are trending toward a higher-net-worth client focus.

Bruce Wingrove, a Utah-based financial adviser with Ameriprise Financial Services, said he’s benefited from his relationship with the tax professionals for years, as he is a legacy H&R Block adviser.

Wingrove, who’s been an adviser for more than 15 years, said about 20% of his production revenue comes from clients who were referred to him by H&R Block tax professionals.

He said during tax season, he becomes significantly busier, as a lot of referrals can mean a lot of late nights. Lately, Wingrove has been handling business with his current clients during regular office hours–from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.–and then he follows up with prospective clients that have been referred to him in the evenings, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“I’m driving out to another small town tonight to meet with some prospective clients there,” he said. “It makes for long work days this time of year, but it’s a great way to get new business.”

Wingrove said he isn’t worried about sharing the client referrals with the legacy Ameriprise advisers because there are still more than enough to go around. Legacy Ameriprise advisers are just beginning to dig in to these referral opportunities and build rapport with the people at H&R Block, but he said they are excited about taking advantage of the opportunity.

Advisers are able to go in to the H&R Block offices in their respective areas to meet with the tax professionals and potential clients.

One of Wingrove’s strategies to build good rapport with the tax pros is to always follow up on every referral.

“Sometimes the client will just have one question about an IRA or 401(K), and once I answer it, that’s the end of the conversation and it doesn’t lead to a client relationship,” Wingrove said. But if he chose to not pursue the referrals that don’t look promising for business, then that tax adviser wouldn’t want to send him future referrals.

Patrick O’Connell, senior vice president of Ameriprise Advisor Group, managing the Eastern half of the country, said the firm can actually use the referral opportunity as a recruiting aid as well. last year, Ameriprise recruited more than 500 experienced advisers from other firms, mainly the top wirehouses. the firm plans to continue such recruiting levels this year, O’Connell said.

In Ameriprise’s fourth-quarter 2009 earnings call Thursday, the firm reported that its total number of advisers declined by 4% year-over-year to about 12,000 advisers, including those in the employee channel, the franchise channel and the independent subsidiary Securities Americas, which has 1,900 advisers. the company said the departures are primarily low-producing advisers who weren’t able to meet productivity requirements.

The average broker at Ameriprise produces about $300,000 to $500,000 annually, whereas the average at the wirehouses tends to be in the $600,000-to-$800,000 range.