Insurance Subsidiaries - Dividends Restrictions and Approved Distributions (Details) - USD ($) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Statutory Accounting Practices [Line Items]
Dividends Paid	$ 8	$ 8	$ 9
Insurance Laws Applicable to Insurance Subsidiaries in Connecticut, Indiana. Iowa, and Minnesota
Statutory Accounting Practices [Line Items]
Percentage threshold of dividends paid in previous twelve months to earned statutory surplus of prior year end, requiring approval of payment of dividends if exceeded	10.00%
Insurance Laws Applicable to Insurance Subsidiaries in Colorado
Statutory Accounting Practices [Line Items]
Percentage threshold of dividends paid in previous twelve months to earned statutory surplus of prior year end, requiring approval of payment of dividends if exceeded	10.00%
Subsidiaries \| Voya Insurance and Annuity Company \| Iowa
Statutory Accounting Practices [Line Items]
Dividends Permitted without Approval	$ 208	279	448
Dividends Paid	278	373
Extraordinary Distributions Paid	250	0
Subsidiaries \| Voya Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company \| Connecticut
Statutory Accounting Practices [Line Items]
Dividends Permitted without Approval	158	266	364
Dividends Paid	265	278
Extraordinary Distributions Paid	0	0
Subsidiaries \| Security Life of Denver Insurance Company (SLD) \| Colorado
Statutory Accounting Practices [Line Items]
Dividends Permitted without Approval	53	74	55
Dividends Paid	73	54
Extraordinary Distributions Paid	0	0
Subsidiaries \| ReliaStar Life Insurance Company (RLI) \| Minnesota
Statutory Accounting Practices [Line Items]
Dividends Permitted without Approval	0	0	$ 0
Dividends Paid	0	0
Extraordinary Distributions Paid	$ 231	$ 100

Amount of paid and unpaid common stock dividends declared with the form of settlement in cash.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 505
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.3-04)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=27012166&loc=d3e187085-122770

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Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 235
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.4-08.(e))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=26873400&loc=d3e23780-122690

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