Last Friday, the Warwick-based financial firm Independent Financial Partners celebrated its first 100 years of business in Rhode Island.

The firm’s 70 financial advisors and 20 staff members didn’t commemorate the occasion by clinking glasses of champagne. Rather, they observed it by donning gloves, grabbing shovels and planting 100 sugar maple trees throughout the Ocean State.

Trees were planted at George B. Parker Woodland in Coventry, Fisherville Brook Wildlife Refuge in Exeter and Powder Mill Ledges Wildlife Refuge in Smithfield. As the company also does business in Connecticut it teamed up with the Audubon Society of Connecticut to plant another 100 sugar maples in the Nutmeg State.

The Audubon Society of Rhode Island selected the planting sites, says Kevin Beaulieu, who co-manages Independent Financial Partners with his brother Richard Beaulieu Jr.

The young trees will likely serve the Audubon Society’s maple sugaring programs in schools, says Beaulieu.

They will also help restore the presence of the native sugar maple tree, says Lawrence Taft, the executive director of the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.

“The number of sugar maples, historically an important part of the New England landscape, has diminished in Rhode Island,” Taft said in a press release.

Taft continued, “We are restoring a native species to the state and ensuring future generations the opportunity to enjoy both the beauty of this tree as well as the educational maple sugaring programs that will eventually result from this planting.”

For Independent Financial Partners, the trees’ planting is symbolic of its century in business and of its plans for the future, says Beaulieu.

“We are looking to the past and also into the future to symbolize all that has been achieved and all there is to continue to do in helping our clients build and protect wealth for generations to come,” said Kevin Beaulieu.

“There’s a lot of turnover in the industry, and players that come and go,” Beaulieu said. “We’ve been a mainstay. Like bricks and mortar.”

He added, “We’re an investment firm. We tend to be with people for a very long time. Trees are not a quick come-and-go. We’re still rooted in Rhode Island, and we’re not going anywhere.”

“That’s why we chose to commemorate our firm’s 100th anniversary by planting 100 trees,” Beaulieu concluded.

The firm, an independent member of the John Hancock Financial Network with a satellite office in Rocky Hill, Conn., deals primarily in financial planning services and selling life insurance, but it is also a company rooted in family values.

For example, the Beaulieus have been with the company for 40 years.

Richard Beaulieu Sr. was the head of Independent Financial Partners from 1972 to 2001 before his sons assumed leadership of the business eight years ago. The elder Beaulieu started as an agent with the company, but worked his way up the ranks.

“Obviously we believe in putting down roots and working hard to grow something of value and significance to our clients, our advisors and our community,” said Rick Beaulieu.

Independent Financial Partners has been able to weather sour economic times by staying consistent—growing slowly rather than aggressively—and relevant, says Kevin Beaulieu. The firm is also a part of the large and stable John Hancock Financial Network.

The firm’s services are what they’ve always been—financial planning, whether for investment or protection. Independent Financial Partners offers investment and insurance products tailored to each client’s needs, Beaulieu says.

“I do see us continuing to grow,” said Beaulieu. “I think the economy and what’s happening out there is making our business really important.”

“Having a financial advisor is really important,” he said. “People spend more time planning a one-week vacation than a financial future. But they also worry about outliving their money.”

So like the maple trees planted last week, Independent Financial Partners’ clients can assume that their financial advisors will be around for the foreseeable future.

“I think they get the consistency of knowing that we’re always going to be here,” Beaulieu said.