Those falling under the label Gen X or Gen Y (born between 1965and 1995) may have received abad rap in terms of their ability and willingnessto save and plan for reitrement, but that's not entirely the case,according to life insurance company MassMutual.

According to its fourth quarter 2013 research, 58.4% of totaldefined contribution participants were in theGen X and Gen Y cohort and continue to gain onbaby boomers, who accounted for just 38.5% of participants onMassMutual's platform.

For 2013 as a whole, the percentage of combined assetscontrolled by Gen X and Gen Y (34.2%) was still below that ofboomers (60.2%), but, according to MassMutual, that gap isgradually closing.

More specifically, women continued to close the gap inretirement plan account balances as well as in savings ratescompared to those of their male counterparts, according toMassMutual. The company's fourth quarter 2013 data showed theaverage deferral rate for female participants was 5.3%, up from5.25% in Q3 of 2013. Though the average account balance for womenstill trailed that of men by 37.4%, it continues to improve.

MassMutual saio the current level marks a “significantimprovement” over the highest recorded gap level of 40.5% in thefourth quarter of 2008.

“We see many positive trends in our data overall, and it'sparticularly gratifying to see that women and Gen X/Gen Y saversare taking such positiveaction steps,” said Elaine Sarsynski, executive vicepresident of MassMutual's Retirement Services Division and chairmanof MassMutual International LLC.