S. Fla. Agent Arrested for Switching Policies, Defrauding Seniors

An insurance agent who targeted victims between the ages of 72 and 86 and fed on their fears about aging has been arrested for allegedly defrauding at least nine South Florida senior citizens by offering them a quote for one level of long-term care insurance, but selling them another.

According to Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, Ronald S. Rogart, was arrested in Gilchrist County, but lived in Miami Beach during the investigation by the Department of Financial Services’ Division of Agent and Agency Services, Bureau of Investigation, and the Division of Insurance Fraud. The alleged fraud occurred between 2002 and 2004. The department revoked Rogart’s agent licenses in December.

Rogart is charged with nine counts each of elder exploitation and insurance fraud. The victims lived in Palm Beach and Broward counties, where Rogart ran local newspaper advertisements offering long-term and home health care programs under the name of “South Florida Senior Advisors.”

Rogart would meet at the customer’s home or apartment where he would explain coverage levels from a variety of insurance companies. But detectives said the prices he quoted were less than the actual cost of the policy, so Rogart would submit an application that reflected a lower level of coverage that matched the quote he gave the customer. When Rogart received the policy, he would replace the real schedule page with a forged one so the clients didn’t know they had been sold less coverage than what they had asked to buy. But a customer filed a complaint after a door-to-door insurance agent pointed out disparities in the policy.