TD Ameritrade continues to enjoy the growth curve that the RIA custodial industry as a whole has experienced and its institutional business is now close to crossing the $300 billion in assets milestone, said Tom Nally, head of the custodial unit.

“We continue to have a “very robust sales pipeline,” Nally told Financial Advisor Wednesday at the firm’s annual Elite conference for its top advisors in Dana Point, Calif.

“I think we’ve probably never had a healthier sales pipeline than we have right now,” he said, declining to give specifics on the number of new breakaways he’s recruited this year.

Last year, the firm’s recruiting slowed a bit and the industry as a whole, including brokerage firms, has more recently seen less advisor movement.

“After the crisis, there was a lot of movement quickly” as people were forced to move, Nally said, but “now what we’re seeing is a lot more thoughtful process about making those transitions … because it’s the larger firms, the larger teams” making the moves.

TD’s Institutional unit now serves about 4,600 advisors. It’s been an important business for TD Ameritrade as a whole, accounting for almost 50 percent of the firm’s $634 billion in total assets. RIAs at the firm bring in three-quarters of net new assets.

Just as crucially, advisors help stabilize TD’s revenues by bringing in more fee-based assets, a goal the firm has had for the past six years.

“Advisors have a tendency to hold more mutual funds” and other products that have stable revenues associated with them, compared to the retail trading business, Nally said, “where there can be a bit more volatility.”

The firm’s AdvisorDirect referral program, where branch brokers in the retail business refer clients to pre-screened independent RIAs, is a critical part of the fee-based strategy. In the last fiscal year ended in September, the branch network referred a record $25 billion in potential client assets to advisors.

“This year we’re on pace to exceed that,” Nally said.

Under terms of the referral program, TD receives 25 percent of whatever fee the advisor charges for successful referrals.

Despite the current growth trends, TD leaders are worried about a potential demographic headwind as advisors and clients age.

Attendees at the conference were urged to connect with younger generations and prepare for the coming demographic shift.

“The demographics are pretty scary,” Nally told the audience of advisors. “Six percent of advisors are under the age of 30. And yet the job growth is expected to be off the charts—32 percent [growth] by 2020—more than double the average of every other profession.”

In an effort to raise the visibility of the advisor profession to young people, TD Institutional this year launched a summer intern support program to encourage its advisors to hire interns this summer. Some 250 firms have said they would participate, Nally said.

The genesis came from the 62 interns TD Ameritrade hired last year. Some were so enthused after learning the advisory business, they decided to pursue it as a career, Nally told Financial Advisor.

The firm has developed guidebooks for advisors on how to run an intern program, he said, including curriculum, suggested objectives and projects for interns, plus webcasts and conference calls with speakers to connect interns with the larger industry.

“We want the students to know that even though they may be part of a small firm, they’re still part of something really big,” Nally said.

One of the concerns interns have is the perceived lack of advancement opportunities in relatively small RIA firms.

“So we’re trying to coach advisors to make sure they have a real solid development plan for these advisors as they bring them in,” Nally said.