Income Tax (Details Textuals) (USD $)	12 Months Ended										12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2010 American Life Insurance Company ("American Life") and Delaware American Life Insurance ("DelAm") [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Certain Foreign Capital Loss Carryforwards [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Certain State and Foreign Net Operating Loss Carryforwards [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Certain Foreign Other Assets [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Investments in Foreign Subsidiaries and Foreign Corporate Joint Ventures that are Essentially Permanent in Duration [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Investments in Foreign Subsidiaries and Foreign Corporate Joint Ventures that are Essentially Permanent in Duration [Member]	Nov. 01, 2010 Investments in Foreign Subsidiaries and Foreign Corporate Joint Ventures that are Essentially Permanent in Duration [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Current Income Tax Receivable [Member]	Dec. 31, 2012 Deferred Income Tax Asset [Member]
Income Tax (Textuals) [Abstract]
Year that tax credit carryforwards will begin to expire	Jan. 01, 2017
Valuation allowance recorded against U.S. deferred tax assets related to American Life's foreign branches	$ 368,000,000	$ 1,083,000,000						$ 720,000,000		$ 671,000,000
Valuation allowance change during year					8,000,000	(25,000,000)	(3,000,000)	49,000,000
Measurement period adjustment											12,000,000	(2,000,000)
Tax credit carryforwards	545,000,000	1,692,000,000
Deferred tax benefit	(324,000,000)	0	0
Amounts excluded from the provision for deferred taxes on cumulative earnings of certain non-U.S. affiliates and associated companies									2,400,000,000
Federal statutory tax rate	35.00%
Income tax benefit related to the separate account dividends received deduction	152,000,000	159,000,000
Penalties recognized in the consolidated statements of operations	0	0	0
True-up of the prior year tax return included in current year benefit related to the separate account dividends received deduction	(1,000,000)	8,000,000
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Additions for tax positions of prior years	$ 105,000,000	$ 30,000,000	$ 186,000,000	$ 169,000,000
Completed percentage of planned branch restructuring	90.00%