Daniel Demer v. IBM Corp Ltd Plan

BYBEE, Circuit Judge,

dissenting from Part II.B, but concurring in the judgment:

An ERISA plan administrator has a structural conflict of interest where it “both funds the plan and evaluates the claims.” Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Glenn, 554 U.S. 105, 112, 128 S.Ct. 2343, 171 L.Ed.2d 299 (2008); see also Abatie v. Alta Health & Life Ins. Co., 458 F.3d 955, 965 (9th Cir. 2006) (en banc). The federal courts have offered at least two ways that such conflicts “should prove less important (perhaps to the vanishing point).” Metro. Life, 554 U.S. at 116, 128 S.Ct. 2343. First, administrators may…