Those falling under the label Gen X or Gen Y (born between 1965 and 1995) may have received a bad rap in terms of their ability and willingness to 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 total defined contribution participants were in the Gen X and Gen Y cohort and continue to gain on baby boomers, who accounted for just 38.5% of participants on MassMutual's platform.

For 2013 as a whole, the percentage of combined assets controlled by Gen X and Gen Y (34.2%) was still below that of boomers (60.2%), but, according to MassMutual, that gap is gradually closing.

More specifically, women continued to close the gap in retirement plan account balances as well as in savings rates compared to those of their male counterparts, according to MassMutual. The company's fourth quarter 2013 data showed the average deferral rate for female participants was 5.3%, up from 5.25% in Q3 of 2013. Though the average account balance for women still trailed that of men by 37.4%, it continues to improve.

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

“We see many positive trends in our data overall, and it's particularly gratifying to see that women and Gen X/Gen Y savers are taking such positive action steps,” said Elaine Sarsynski, executive vice president of MassMutual's Retirement Services Division and chairman of MassMutual International LLC.

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