Heads-up advice from the experts at Burns & Wilcox, Lockton Cos. and Zurich Services Corp.

The vacant building business is still alive but waning in some areas of the country, as carriers are starting to count their losses and pull out.

Medical Malpractice insurers are struggling against a dwindling client base, a soft market, burgeoning jury awards and new federal health-care regulations as they try to retain current business and attract new clients.

The good news for doctors and Medical Malpractice insurers is that more than 90 percent of all medical-liability claims are settled out of court.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission gets some 400 product reports a year, says CPSC spokesman Alex Filip. The reports come in through the CPSCs Safer Products website, www.saferproducts.gov, which it set up a year ago as an information portal for consumers.

Death and injuries force recall.

In 2010, McDonalds Corp. set the bar for product-liability response when it managed to recall some 12 million Shrek Forever After 3-D collectible drinking glasses manufactured by ARC International of Millville, N.J.

Competition in the product-recall arena is heating up, and not because the economy is encouraging consumption. Rather, increased product scrutiny across markets is giving headaches to nearly every industry but insurance.