Business Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations - Narrative (Details)			12 Months Ended			24 Months Ended	36 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2020 USD ($) subsidiary	Jun. 01, 2018 USD ($) subsidiary	Dec. 31, 2019 USD ($) subsidiary	Dec. 31, 2018 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2017 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2018 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2019 USD ($) subsidiary	Dec. 18, 2019 USD ($)
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Number of subsidiaries | subsidiary			3				3
Individual Life Transaction | Held for sale
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Reverse termination fee payable if Resolution MTA is terminated in prescribed circumstances related to failure to provide a committed financing facility								$ 100,000,000
Reverse termination fee payable if Resolution MTA is terminated in prescribed circumstances related to failure to obtain certain approvals or consents								$ 20,000,000
Estimated loss on sale, net of Tax			$ 1,108,000,000	$ 0	$ 0
Fair value of reinsurance rate sharing derivative			77,000,000	53,000,000		$ 53,000,000	$ 77,000,000
Write-down of businesses held for sale to fair value less cost to sell			(1,108,000,000)	0		0	(1,108,000,000)
Individual Life Transaction | Held for sale | RLNY | SLD
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Reinsurance agreement, reserves expected to be ceded			11,000,000,000.0				11,000,000,000.0
2018 Transaction | Held for sale
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Number of subsidiaries | subsidiary		2
Purchase price		$ 169,000,000
Principal amount in surplus notes that will be retained by the Company		$ 350,000,000
Estimated loss on sale, net of Tax			82,000,000	$ (505,000,000)	$ 2,423,000,000		2,000,000,000
Estimated transaction costs							$ 33,000,000
Equity interest in VA Capital		9.99%
Loss on deferred tax assets due to sale						$ 460,000,000
Amount of adjustment to prior period gain (loss) on disposal, net of tax			$ (82,000,000)
Forecast | Subsequent event | Individual Life Transaction | Held for sale
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Number of subsidiaries | subsidiary	5
Purchase price	$ 1,250,000,000
Cash consideration	902,000,000
Equity interest in RLGH	225,000,000
Principal amount in surplus notes that will be retained by the Company	123,000,000
Maximum amount of financial obligations guaranteed under limited guarantee provided by RLGH	$ 1,300,000,000
Forecast | Subsequent event | Individual Life Transaction | Held for sale | RLI and VRIAC | SLD
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Reinsurance agreement, reinsurance quota share, percent of respective individual life insurance and annuities businesses	100.00%
Forecast | Subsequent event | Individual Life Transaction | Held for sale | RLNY | SLD
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Reinsurance agreement, reinsurance quota share, percent of respective individual life insurance and annuities businesses	75.00%