Separation - Disc Ops - Cash flows (Details) - Brighthouse Financial, Inc - USD ($) $ in Millions	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2017	Sep. 30, 2016
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Operating activities	$ 1,329	$ 2,590
Investing activities	(2,732)	(5,074)
Financing activities	$ (367)	$ 3,739

Amount of cash inflow (outflow) of financing activities of discontinued operations. Financing activity cash flows include obtaining resources from owners and providing them with a return on, and a return of, their investment; borrowing money and repaying amounts borrowed, or settling the obligation; and obtaining and paying for other resources obtained from creditors on long-term credit.

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- Definition

Amount of cash inflow (outflow) of investing activities of discontinued operations. Investing activity cash flows include making and collecting loans and acquiring and disposing of debt or equity instruments and property, plant, and equipment and other productive assets.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 230
-SubTopic 10
-Section 45
-Paragraph 24
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=98514028&loc=d3e3521-108585

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 205
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 5B
-Subparagraph (c)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=64827811&loc=SL51721673-107760

+ Details

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- Definition

Amount of cash inflow (outflow) of operating activities of discontinued operations. Operating activity cash flows include transactions, adjustments, and changes in value not defined as investing or financing activities.

+ References

+ Details

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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