The Connecticut Senate has confirmed Josh Hershman as the state’s 34th insurance commissioner.
Hershman has served as commissioner in an interim capacity since December 2025, replacing Andrew N. Mais who retired from state service last year after nearly seven years as commissioner.
“Each day reinforces how essential our work is to Connecticut residents and businesses,
” Hershman commented upon the news of his confirmation. “I remain focused on advancing solutions that improve the affordability and availability of insurance across all lines.”
Hershman is a former deputy insurance commissioner who was serving as chief executive officer of the Immigrant Life Insurance Co. of America, a Connecticu
t-domiciled and wholly owned subsidiary of IDT Corp., when he agreed to become commissioner. At Immigrant Life, he helped build an admitted-market life insur
ance carrier designed to close the coverage gap faced by immigrant families.
He also served as executive director of openIDL, a Linux Foundation project modernizing data
exchange through creating data standards across the property/casualty insurance insurance industry.
From 2019 to 2022, Hershman was deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the Connecticut Insurance Department, focused on AI’s impact on insura
nce, data-driven regulatory modernization, and innovation across the industry.
Prior to his public service, he practiced law with a focus on complex business planning and litigation.
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The Connecticut Insurance Department has about 150 full-time employees. It is funded t
hrough assessments on insurance companies; its budget for the 2025 fiscal year was approximately $35.5 million.
The department oversees 1,609 licensed companies, 107 of which are domestic insurers. According to its annual report, Connecticut’s P/C insurance industry ranks fifth in the nation for DWP.
A bankruptcy trustee later determined that Marshall had been using new investment money
to pay off previous investors by 2011. He eventually owed almost 1,000 people and organizatio
ns about $95 million in principal and interest, according to the trustee.
Attorney General Letitia James said Marshall also spent his investors’ funds on shopping, vacations and restaurants.
“Miles Burton Marshall scammed his clients out of their life savings and used their hard-earned mo
ney to fuel a classic Ponzi scheme,” James said in a prepared release.
An email seeking comment was sent to Marshall’s attorney.
Marshall is scheduled to be sentenced in Madison County Court on June 11.
“I am shocked and a little upset that he didn’t get more time. I don’t feel justice was served,” Dennis
Sullivan, who was owed about $40,000, wrote in a text after the plea. “He has ruined so many of our lives.”
Marshall had made good on his promises to pay interest and process withdrawals for many years. But he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023 after a hos
pitalization for a heart condition and a subsequent run on note holders asking for their money back. H
e declared more than $90 million in liabilities and $21.5 million in assets.
