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.
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