"When you look at the groups as a whole, you recognize that they are really dealing with issues stemming from perspectives and habits rooted in their generations," she said. "Millennials entered the workforce during a time when it was 'cool' to be thrifty; GenXers lived in the shadow of the Boomers and have a generally cynical attitude toward achieving their goals, and Boomers—both late and early—are part of a generation that had everything tailored to their needs. This really creates a different set of issues as a result for each group."

Davidson notes that the financial services industry hasn't typically recognized these differences, thinking of financial planning from a more analytical and technical perspective rather than relating to the different attitudes generations have about managing their money. This has been particularly costly to GenXers and Millennials, who are distinctly different than early and late Baby Boomers in terms of how they need to be approached.

"There has been a lot of emphasis on the significant challenges facing Boomers when it comes to retirement, namely that more and more employees in this generation are being forced to delay retirement, or worse, are having to retire for health reasons with insufficient savings, but not enough emphasis has been placed on younger generations who are already struggling more than Boomers did at their age due to the recession," Davidson said. "This is hugely concerning because there will be an even larger crisis if other generations, especially the Millennials who are now the largest generation in our history, cannot retire comfortably."

Greg Ward, director of Financial Finesse's Think Tank and 18-year veteran of the financial planning industry, said this is why it is crucial for financial professionals to reform their traditional approach to financial planning and adopt a new approach that targets younger generations' concerns.

"There is no one-size-fits-all formula to financial planning anymore," he said. "These younger generations, in a lot of ways, are relying on the industry to help them with what they don't know, and they need more targeted guidance that makes sense to the issues they face, not the ones their parents and grandparents dealt with."

He added that it is "definitely time for society to recognize the specific financial issues of these groups."

For employers, Davidson points to innovation in plan design and technology as paramount to helping younger generations succeed. Retirement plans that automatically enroll employees and automatically escalate their contribution rates have helped younger workers to save more for retirement. Online platforms that provide detailed analysis of employees' financial behaviors and priorities have helped employers to identify the financial and educational needs of different generations within their workforce.

Successful programs often use technology to incorporate social media, webcasts, and other live multi-media events where employees from around the country can connect and discuss their experiences with each other—something the Millennials and Generation X are showing they prefer to traditional education delivery.

The key, according to the latest research coming out of the field of behavioral economics, and borne out in the experiences of companies that have achieved significant retirement savings rates among younger employees, is to take the same technology that is used for impulsive shopping and spending and make it a tool for automatic planning and saving for retirement.