Business, Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2016
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Business, Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies	1. Business, Basis of Presentation and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies Business “MetLife” and the “Company” refer to MetLife, Inc., a Delaware corporation incorporated in 1999, its subsidiaries and affiliates. MetLife is a global provider of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management. MetLife is organized into six segments: Retail; Group, Voluntary & Worksite Benefits; Corporate Benefit Funding; and Latin America (collectively, the “Americas”); Asia; and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”). Basis of Presentation The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) requires management to adopt accounting policies and make estimates and assumptions that affect amounts reported on the interim condensed consolidated financial statements. In applying these policies and estimates, management makes subjective and complex judgments that frequently require assumptions about matters that are inherently uncertain. Many of these policies, estimates and related judgments are common in the insurance and financial services industries; others are specific to the Company’s business and operations. Actual results could differ from estimates. Consolidation The accompanying interim condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of MetLife, Inc. and its subsidiaries, as well as partnerships and joint ventures in which the Company has control, and variable interest entities (“VIEs”) for which the Company is the primary beneficiary. Intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated. Prior to January 1, 2016, certain international subsidiaries had a fiscal year cutoff of November 30th. Accordingly, the Company’s interim condensed consolidated financial statements reflect the assets and liabilities of such subsidiaries as of November 30, 2015 and the operating results of such subsidiaries for the three months and six months ended May 31, 2015. Effective January 1, 2016, the Company converted its Japan operations to calendar year-end reporting. The elimination of a one-month reporting lag of a subsidiary is considered a change in accounting principle and requires retrospective application. While the Company believes that eliminating the lag in the reporting of its Japan operations was preferable in order to consistently reflect events, economic conditions and global trends in the financial statements, the Company determined that it was impracticable to apply the effects of the lag elimination to financial reporting periods prior to January 1, 2015. The effect of not retroactively applying this change in accounting, however, was not material to the 2015 or 2016 consolidated financial statements. Therefore, the Company reported the cumulative effect of the change in accounting principle in net income for the three months ended March 31, 2016 and the six months ended June 30, 2016 and did not retrospectively apply the effects of this change to prior periods. See Note 2. The Company uses the equity method of accounting for equity securities when it has significant influence or at least 20% interest and for real estate joint ventures and other limited partnership interests (“investees”) when it has more than a minor ownership interest or more than a minor influence over the investee’s operations, but does not have a controlling financial interest. The Company generally recognizes its share of the investee’s earnings on a three-month lag in instances where the investee’s financial information is not sufficiently timely or when the investee’s reporting period differs from the Company’s reporting period. The Company uses the cost method of accounting for investments in which it has virtually no influence over the investee’s operations. Reclassifications Certain amounts in the prior year periods’ interim condensed consolidated financial statements and related footnotes thereto have been reclassified to conform with the 2016 presentation as discussed throughout the Notes to the Interim Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements. The accompanying interim condensed consolidated financial statements are unaudited and reflect all adjustments (including normal recurring adjustments) necessary to present fairly the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the interim periods presented in conformity with GAAP. Interim results are not necessarily indicative of full year performance. The December 31, 2015 consolidated balance sheet data was derived from audited consolidated financial statements included in MetLife, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10‑K for the year ended December 31, 2015 (the “2015 Annual Report”), which include all disclosures required by GAAP. Therefore, these interim condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements of the Company included in the 2015 Annual Report. Adoption of New Accounting Pronouncement Effective January 1, 2016, the Company retrospectively adopted new guidance relating to the consolidation of certain entities. The objective of the new standard is to improve targeted areas of the consolidation guidance and to reduce the number of consolidation models. The new consolidation standard provides guidance on how a reporting entity (i) evaluates whether the entity should consolidate limited partnerships and similar entities, (ii) assesses whether the fees paid to a decision maker or service provider are variable interests in a VIE, and (iii) assesses the variable interests in a VIE held by related parties of the reporting entity. The new guidance also eliminates the VIE consolidation model based on majority exposure to variability that applied to certain investment companies and similar entities. The adoption of the new guidance did not impact which entities are consolidated by the Company. The consolidated VIE assets and liabilities and unconsolidated VIE carrying amounts and maximum exposure to loss as of June 30, 2016, disclosed in Note 6, reflect the application of the new guidance. Future Adoption of New Accounting Pronouncements In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued new guidance on measurement of credit losses on financial instruments (Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments). The new guidance is effective for fiscal years and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2019. Early adoption is permitted for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018. This ASU replaces the incurred loss impairment methodology with one that reflects expected credit losses. The measurement of expected credit losses should be based on historical loss information, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts. The guidance also requires enhanced disclosures. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements. In March 2016, the FASB issued new guidance on stock compensation (ASU 2016-09, Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-based Payment Accounting. The new guidance is effective for the fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim periods within those fiscal years, and requires either a modified retrospective, a retrospective or a prospective transition approach depending upon the type of change. Early adoption is permitted in any interim or annual period. The new guidance changes several aspects of the accounting for share-based payment award transactions, including: (a) income tax consequences when awards vest or are settled; (b) classification of awards as either equity or liabilities due to statutory tax withholding requirements; and (c) classification on the statement of cash flows. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements. In February 2016, the FASB issued new guidance on leasing transactions (ASU 2016-02, Leases - Topic 842). The new guidance is effective for the fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years, and requires a modified retrospective transition approach which includes a number of optional practical expedients. Early adoption is permitted. The new guidance requires a lessee to recognize assets and liabilities for leases with lease terms of more than 12 months. Consistent with current guidance, leases would be classified as finance or operating leases. However, unlike current guidance, the new guidance will require both types of leases to be recognized on the balance sheet. Lessor accounting will remain largely unchanged from current guidance except for certain targeted changes. The new guidance will also require new qualitative and quantitative disclosures. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements. In January 2016, the FASB issued new guidance (ASU 2016-01, Financial Instruments-Overall: Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities) on the recognition and measurement of financial instruments. The new guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted for the instrument-specific credit risk provision. The new guidance changes the current accounting guidance related to (i) the classification and measurement of certain equity investments, (ii) the presentation of changes in the fair value of financial liabilities measured under the fair value option (“FVO”) that are due to instrument-specific credit risk, and (iii) certain disclosures associated with the fair value of financial instruments. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements. In May 2015, the FASB issued new guidance on short-duration insurance contracts (ASU 2015-09, Financial Services - Insurance (Topic 944): Disclosures about Short-Duration Contracts). The amendments in this new guidance are effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2015, and interim periods within annual periods beginning after December 15, 2016. The new guidance should be applied retrospectively by providing comparative disclosures for each period presented, except for those requirements that apply only to the current period. The new guidance requires insurance entities to provide users of financial statements with more transparent information about initial claim estimates and subsequent adjustments to these estimates, including information on: (i) reconciling from the claim development table to the balance sheet liability, (ii) methodologies and judgments in estimating claims, and (iii) the timing, and frequency of claims. The adoption will not have an impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements other than expanded disclosures in Note 4. In May 2014, the FASB issued a comprehensive new revenue recognition standard (ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)), effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016 and interim periods within those years and should be applied retrospectively. In August 2015, the FASB amended the guidance to defer the effective date by one year, effective for the fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within that reporting period. Earlier application is permitted only as of annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim reporting periods within that reporting period. The new guidance will supersede nearly all existing revenue recognition guidance under GAAP; however, it will not impact the accounting for insurance contracts, leases, financial instruments and guarantees. For those contracts that are impacted by the new guidance, the guidance will require an entity to recognize revenue upon the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled, in exchange for those goods or services. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements.

Business

“MetLife” and the “Company” refer to MetLife, Inc., a Delaware corporation incorporated in 1999, its subsidiaries and affiliates. MetLife is a global provider of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management. MetLife is organized into six segments: Retail; Group, Voluntary & Worksite Benefits; Corporate Benefit Funding; and Latin America (collectively, the “Americas”); Asia; and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”).

Basis of Presentation

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) requires management to adopt accounting policies and make estimates and assumptions that affect amounts reported on the interim condensed consolidated financial statements. In applying these policies and estimates, management makes subjective and complex judgments that frequently require assumptions about matters that are inherently uncertain. Many of these policies, estimates and related judgments are common in the insurance and financial services industries; others are specific to the Company’s business and operations. Actual results could differ from estimates.

Consolidation

The accompanying interim condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of MetLife, Inc. and its subsidiaries, as well as partnerships and joint ventures in which the Company has control, and variable interest entities (“VIEs”) for which the Company is the primary beneficiary. Intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated.

Prior to January 1, 2016, certain international subsidiaries had a fiscal year cutoff of November 30th. Accordingly, the Company’s interim condensed consolidated financial statements reflect the assets and liabilities of such subsidiaries as of November 30, 2015 and the operating results of such subsidiaries for the three months and six months ended May 31, 2015. Effective January 1, 2016, the Company converted its Japan operations to calendar year-end reporting. The elimination of a one-month reporting lag of a subsidiary is considered a change in accounting principle and requires retrospective application. While the Company believes that eliminating the lag in the reporting of its Japan operations was preferable in order to consistently reflect events, economic conditions and global trends in the financial statements, the Company determined that it was impracticable to apply the effects of the lag elimination to financial reporting periods prior to January 1, 2015. The effect of not retroactively applying this change in accounting, however, was not material to the 2015 or 2016 consolidated financial statements. Therefore, the Company reported the cumulative effect of the change in accounting principle in net income for the three months ended March 31, 2016 and the six months ended June 30, 2016 and did not retrospectively apply the effects of this change to prior periods. See Note 2.

The Company uses the equity method of accounting for equity securities when it has significant influence or at least 20% interest and for real estate joint ventures and other limited partnership interests (“investees”) when it has more than a minor ownership interest or more than a minor influence over the investee’s operations, but does not have a controlling financial interest. The Company generally recognizes its share of the investee’s earnings on a three-month lag in instances where the investee’s financial information is not sufficiently timely or when the investee’s reporting period differs from the Company’s reporting period. The Company uses the cost method of accounting for investments in which it has virtually no influence over the investee’s operations.

Reclassifications

Certain amounts in the prior year periods’ interim condensed consolidated financial statements and related footnotes thereto have been reclassified to conform with the 2016 presentation as discussed throughout the Notes to the Interim Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

The accompanying interim condensed consolidated financial statements are unaudited and reflect all adjustments (including normal recurring adjustments) necessary to present fairly the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the interim periods presented in conformity with GAAP. Interim results are not necessarily indicative of full year performance. The December 31, 2015 consolidated balance sheet data was derived from audited consolidated financial statements included in MetLife, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10‑K for the year ended December 31, 2015 (the “2015 Annual Report”), which include all disclosures required by GAAP. Therefore, these interim condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements of the Company included in the 2015 Annual Report.

Adoption of New Accounting Pronouncement

Effective January 1, 2016, the Company retrospectively adopted new guidance relating to the consolidation of certain entities. The objective of the new standard is to improve targeted areas of the consolidation guidance and to reduce the number of consolidation models. The new consolidation standard provides guidance on how a reporting entity (i) evaluates whether the entity should consolidate limited partnerships and similar entities, (ii) assesses whether the fees paid to a decision maker or service provider are variable interests in a VIE, and (iii) assesses the variable interests in a VIE held by related parties of the reporting entity. The new guidance also eliminates the VIE consolidation model based on majority exposure to variability that applied to certain investment companies and similar entities. The adoption of the new guidance did not impact which entities are consolidated by the Company. The consolidated VIE assets and liabilities and unconsolidated VIE carrying amounts and maximum exposure to loss as of June 30, 2016, disclosed in Note 6, reflect the application of the new guidance.

Future Adoption of New Accounting Pronouncements

In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued new guidance on measurement of credit losses on financial instruments (Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments). The new guidance is effective for fiscal years and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2019. Early adoption is permitted for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018. This ASU replaces the incurred loss impairment methodology with one that reflects expected credit losses. The measurement of expected credit losses should be based on historical loss information, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts. The guidance also requires enhanced disclosures. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements.

In March 2016, the FASB issued new guidance on stock compensation (ASU 2016-09, Compensation - Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-based Payment Accounting. The new guidance is effective for the fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim periods within those fiscal years, and requires either a modified retrospective, a retrospective or a prospective transition approach depending upon the type of change. Early adoption is permitted in any interim or annual period. The new guidance changes several aspects of the accounting for share-based payment award transactions, including: (a) income tax consequences when awards vest or are settled; (b) classification of awards as either equity or liabilities due to statutory tax withholding requirements; and (c) classification on the statement of cash flows. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements.

In February 2016, the FASB issued new guidance on leasing transactions (ASU 2016-02, Leases - Topic 842). The new guidance is effective for the fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those fiscal years, and requires a modified retrospective transition approach which includes a number of optional practical expedients. Early adoption is permitted. The new guidance requires a lessee to recognize assets and liabilities for leases with lease terms of more than 12 months. Consistent with current guidance, leases would be classified as finance or operating leases. However, unlike current guidance, the new guidance will require both types of leases to be recognized on the balance sheet. Lessor accounting will remain largely unchanged from current guidance except for certain targeted changes. The new guidance will also require new qualitative and quantitative disclosures. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements.

In January 2016, the FASB issued new guidance (ASU 2016-01, Financial Instruments-Overall: Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities) on the recognition and measurement of financial instruments. The new guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted for the instrument-specific credit risk provision. The new guidance changes the current accounting guidance related to (i) the classification and measurement of certain equity investments, (ii) the presentation of changes in the fair value of financial liabilities measured under the fair value option (“FVO”) that are due to instrument-specific credit risk, and (iii) certain disclosures associated with the fair value of financial instruments. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements.

In May 2015, the FASB issued new guidance on short-duration insurance contracts (ASU 2015-09, Financial Services - Insurance (Topic 944): Disclosures about Short-Duration Contracts). The amendments in this new guidance are effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2015, and interim periods within annual periods beginning after December 15, 2016. The new guidance should be applied retrospectively by providing comparative disclosures for each period presented, except for those requirements that apply only to the current period. The new guidance requires insurance entities to provide users of financial statements with more transparent information about initial claim estimates and subsequent adjustments to these estimates, including information on: (i) reconciling from the claim development table to the balance sheet liability, (ii) methodologies and judgments in estimating claims, and (iii) the timing, and frequency of claims. The adoption will not have an impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements other than expanded disclosures in Note 4.

In May 2014, the FASB issued a comprehensive new revenue recognition standard (ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)), effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016 and interim periods within those years and should be applied retrospectively. In August 2015, the FASB amended the guidance to defer the effective date by one year, effective for the fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within that reporting period. Earlier application is permitted only as of annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim reporting periods within that reporting period. The new guidance will supersede nearly all existing revenue recognition guidance under GAAP; however, it will not impact the accounting for insurance contracts, leases, financial instruments and guarantees. For those contracts that are impacted by the new guidance, the guidance will require an entity to recognize revenue upon the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled, in exchange for those goods or services. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this guidance on its consolidated financial statements.