About the Founder
Vernon Bonfield
Founder & CEO · WHIA
Over twenty-five years in employee benefits — and one stubborn belief: employers deserve better than what they've been handed.
Over twenty-five years in employee benefits — and one stubborn belief: employers deserve better than what they've been handed.
Vernon Bonfield has spent more than 25 years in employee benefits — long enough to see exactly how the system works, and who it usually works for. He founded WHIA on a simple conviction: employers deserve better than annual rate hikes and a short list of options. So he built a different kind of firm — independent, flat-fee, and aligned with the employer's best interests.
Today, Vernon combines his work as a benefits advisor with his passion for aviation, flying his floatplane across Washington to meet business owners and HR teams face to face. Whether he is sitting down in a conference room, walking a factory floor, or meeting with leaders at a job site, his goal is the same: help employers understand their options, lower costs, improve benefits, and make decisions with confidence.
No jargon, no pressure, no sales pitch — just clear, honest guidance from someone who's spent a career learning where the real opportunities hide.
A working playbook for Washington employers tired of accepting bad renewals — twelve chapters of practical, no-fluff guidance written specifically for businesses with 10 to 200 employees.
Inside: the warning signs of a benefits strategy stuck on autopilot, the 50-option mindset that uncovers plans most brokers never show, and an employer checklist for evaluating whether your current plan is actually the best one available.
Built for the renewal that just landed on your desk — not for the bookshelf.
Vernon Bonfield · Washington Health Insurance Agency
Vernon distilled 25 years of hard-won lessons into a book for the employers and HR leaders who feel stuck with what they've been handed.
Benefits Done Better is a plain-spoken guide to understanding what you're really paying for, why costs keep climbing, and how to take back control of one of your largest expenses — without sacrificing the coverage your people count on.
It is a book about seeing the system more clearly, asking better questions, and building a benefits strategy that finally works for the employer and the employees it was meant to serve.
Vernon's YouTube podcast — short, straight-talking conversations about employee benefits, healthcare costs, and the strategies most employers never hear about.
Filmed between client visits across the state, it's named for exactly how Vernon works: in motion, in the field, and rarely far from the next runway. Each episode breaks down a real situation in plain language — the kind of insight that usually stays behind closed doors.
Spend thirty minutes with Vernon. No quotes, no proposals, no pressure — just a direct, experienced read on where your plan stands today and what's genuinely possible.
Book a conversation