Graeme Lindsay, who acts as a financial adviser coach and risk adviser in his own right, said there was a trend in other countries towards trauma contracts that paid out different amounts depending on the severity of the claim.

People who had suffered a severe event were paid the full amount but if it was a lesser incident, a smaller amount was paid. Lindsay said that helped to reduce premiums.

In Australia, there have been concerns about the sustainability of trauma insurance, particularly for group cover.

Lindsay said a couple of New Zealand insurers were believed to be looking at introducing the product.

At the moment in New Zealand, the difference in premium between basic and comprehensive trauma products was so small that clients would be unlikely to take the basic cover, he said.

“Things are out of kilter. Severity-based trauma products may be the next big thing.”

Andre Dreyer, of reinsurer RGA, said he thought scaled trauma products were coming for New Zealand consumers.

AIA product manager Grant Evitt said: "South Africa were the first to introduce scaled trauma payments. In Australia, one company has introduced a full scaled product. A variant of the scaled approach is you pay more than 100% of the sum assured for catastrophic events which have a 'catastrophic' impact upon your lifestyle.  No one has yet introduced it into NZ but there has been considerable discussion about it."