[1] Governor Engler created the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation as a Type I agency within the department in 2000.

With that same Executive order, the Brownfield Redevelopment Single Business Tax Credits and a merged Metropolitan Extension Telecommunications Rights-of-Way Oversight Authority and Michigan Broadband Development Authority were moved from the Department of Treasury to the department.

[5] In April 2011, Governor Snyder renamed the department to the "Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs" (LARA), transferring the Michigan Next Energy Authority, Michigan State Housing Development Authority, Bureau of Workforce Transformation, the Council for Labor and Economic Growth, and Land Bank Fast Track Authority to the Michigan Strategic Fund.

The independent Michigan Administrative Hearing System was also created within the department under the reorganization plan.

[6] On March 18, 2015, Snyder signed an executive order to form the Michigan Agency for Energy with in LARA in 60 days.