The San Francisco-based financial services company said yesterday that it supported a record 172 new advisory teams last year who either started or joined an independent firm, a 40 per cent increase from last year.

Nearly half of those new teams that chose to turn independent with Schwab joined an existing firm.

The newly independent advisors were responsible for $13 billion of the $41 billion in net new assets Schwab Advisor Services secured in 2009.

And Schwab expects to see those numbers grow even more this year, said Barnaby Grist, senior managing director of strategic business development for Schwab.

“Our pipeline is already up 50 percent from this time last year,” Mr Grist said.

Just two weeks ago, Sallie Krawcheck, who runs Merrill Lynch for Bank of America, said the trend of advisors leaving wirehouse firms was turning around, and that fourth quarter defections from Merrill had slowed considerably.

But Mr Grist said the fourth quarter was in fact the strongest quarter of the year for advisors going independent.

“Attrition may have stopped for advisors going from one wirehouse to the other, but a growing number are going independent,” he said.

The stabilization of the stock market was a big reason for the record number of breakaway brokers last year, according to industry consultant Tim Welsh, president of Nexus Strategy, of Larkspur, California.

“Now that things have stabilized, the fear factor is gone,” Mr Welsh said. “Plus these things can take six months to complete. My guess is the pipeline is full and we’ll see more this year. I think we’re still at the very early adopter stage of this trend.”

Steven Wade, partner for Knightsbridge Advisors, a New York-based executive search and consulting firm, agreed.

“There’s so much change at the larger firms and there aren’t so many places to go that are attractive,” Mr Wade said. “I think people feel more secure now at smaller firms.”

The large number of newly independent advisors going to an existing firm instead of  hanging out their own shingle is a “big new development” said Mr Grist.

“A lot of advisors like the idea of being independent, but when it came down to the nuts and bolts of setting up a new office, installing new technology and doing compliance, they didn’t have the time,” he said.

But they did feel an urgency to get out of their existing firms, Mr Grist said.

In addition, Schwab invested heavily and devoted considerable resources to helping existing RIAs recruit wirehouse advisors.

Schwab held a record number of educational events for advisors considering going independent, he said, as well as offering advice and offering educational webcasts.

What’s more, Schwab was able to use its 6,000 advisor network to play match-maker “very effectively,” Mr Grist said.