Compete, Inc., in collaboration with MSN and Media Contacts, have published the finding of their new study, "Consumer Adoption of Online Retirement Planning Tools."

The study sheds light on how consumers use online retirement tools offered on websites of financial institutions, such as fidelity.com and bankofamerica.com, to develop and execute their wealth accumulation strategy.

Mike Bailey, managing director, financial services practice of Compete, announced that consumers who are aware of the availability of online retirement tools and use them, are more likely to take action. Every month an average of 180,000 consumers use online retirement tools.

Compete's researchers used generational segments (Gen Y, Gen X, Baby Boomers and Seniors) to evaluate online activity on key financial advisor, direct broker, retirement plan provider, financial media and financial portal sites.

The study also focused on search and navigation behaviors of online consumers and generated feedback using a targeted online survey.

Key discoveries from this study show that 75 percent of online retirement tool users changed their investment strategy as a result of the tool, that tool users engage with retirement sites at a much greater rate than do those who are not actively planning their wealth accumulation strategies, that Baby Boomers comprise the largest portion of users, and that younger consumers are starting to save at an earlier age.

"This study shows that financial sites should make online retirement tools more visible and use the availability of tools to draw consumers deeper into retirement-related content," says Ed Montes, SVP, Media Contacts.