Carter

MEMORANDUM *

Debra Carter (“Carter”) appeals the district court’s judgment for the defendants. Under the relevant disability-benefits plan (“the Plan”), an independent claims administrator, Voluntary Plan Administrator (“VPA”), determines whether a claimant qualifies for benefits. Carter seeks review of VPA’s denial of her petition for long-term benefits, asserting that this denial was an abuse of the VPA’s discretion.

*527 Abatie v. Alta Health & Life Insurance Co., 458 F.3d 955 (9th Cir.2006), filed the day before argument here, fundamentally changed how we review administrator determinations under the Employee Retirement Security Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1001-1461 . Abatie states that abuse-of-discretion review is merited, in almost all cases, when the plan confers sufficient discretion to the plan administrator. 458 F.3d at 962-63 . This court has held that the Plan sufficiently vests such discretion. LaMantia v. Voluntary Plan Adm’rs, Inc., 401 F.3d 1114, 1123 (9th Cir.2005). But Abatie also changed how courts are to apply the abuse-of-discretion standard, including (1) eliminating the need for plaintiffs to produce evidence of a serious conflict, id. at 967 ; (2) allowing courts…