It would make sense that insurers and other institutionsentrusted with your financial security would be risk-averse. Riskaversion is the name of the game in insurance, at least from theperspective of a customer.

Related: How technology is changing the game for healthinsurance brokers

But Pegasystems, a software company that focuses oncustomer relationship management, recently released a studyclaiming that the financial services sector and the insuranceindustry are too conservative in their approach.

The survey of more than 500 insurance and financial servicesexecutives found that a majority said they would accept a maximumfailure rate of 30 percent for innovation pilot projects. As aresult, suggests Marketforce, major financial businesses aren’tmeaningfully experimenting with new strategies.

The hesitation to innovate makes the old school industriesparticularly vulnerable to challenges from disrupters that offereasier ways for customers to do banking or buy and manage theirinsurance.

Most startups that try to break into the market withrevolutionary technology fail, which is why the venture capitaliststhat often back them usually are investing in a large number ofcompanies. They expect most to never make it, but their hope isthat the few that do make it will more than pay for thefailures.

Graham Lloyd, Pegasystems’ director and industry principal offinancial services, said the traditional financial sector has totry out more new ideas, and accept that many of them willfail.

Related: Hey insurance industry, wake the #@$&up!

He also clarified, in response to a question from BenefitsPRO,taking risks in pursuit of new technology should not be confusedwith pursuing the types of risky business practices that underminedthe global financial system and provoked the 2008 economiccollapse.

“(T)hey also need to learn that innovation is a percentages gameand that innovation failures are acceptable at a higher level thanthe credit risk failures, which may be their unwitting yardstick —just don’t confuse the two,” he said in an emailed statement. “Newtechnology should not compromise their risk tolerance and should berigorously tested before deployment, as would be any offering from(fast-moving consumer goods) or Pharma, for example.”

The executives surveyed for the study clearly recognized thethreat on the horizon. Fifty percent say they expect newdigitally-focused businesses to significantly or “massively”disrupt the industry in the next five years. Thirty-nine percentexpect the Internet of Things tosimilarly impact the industry.