As promised in her State of the State Address, Governor Jennifer Granholm signed an Executive Order Friday creating the Automobile and Home Insurance Consumer Advocate in the new Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation (OFIR).

Under the order (EO 2008-2), the new advocate would be charged with reviewing current laws and practices in light of testimony from the public and industry experts and submitting annual recommendations for legislative and regulatory changes to beneift customers.  The advocate would also be in charge of customer education programs and could also appear on behalf of customers in proceedings before the OFIR commissioner.

The new office, OFIR, is essentially a renaming of the old Office of Financial and Insurance Services and would still be headed by the commissioner.