Preferred Stock And Other Capital (Details) (USD $)	0 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended					0 Months Ended
	Nov. 14, 2008	Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 30, 2010	Sep. 30, 2011 years	Sep. 30, 2010	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 22, 2010	Sep. 14, 2000 Series B Preferred Stock [Member]	Sep. 14, 2000 Series B Preferred Stock [Member] FTRESC [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Series B Preferred Stock [Member] First Horizon Preferred Funding l and ll, LLC [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Preferred Class A [Member] FTBNA [Member]	Mar. 23, 2005 Preferred Class A [Member] FTBNA [Member]	Mar. 23, 2005 Preferred Class A [Member] FTRESC [Member]	Nov. 14, 2008 Fixed Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock [Member]	Sep. 30, 2010 FTBNA [Member]
Preferred Units [Line Items]
Preferred shares issued	866,540	0	866,540	0	866,540	0			50				300,000
Sale of preferred shares														866,540
Class B preferred shares sold privately to nonaffiliates								47
Issued warrant to purchase common shares	12,743,235
Issued warrant to purchase common shares, exercise price	$ 10.20
Maturity of warrant, years				10
Number of warrant adjusted to cover common shares due to stock dividend				14,842,321
Warrant adjustment due to stock dividend to cover common shares per share				$ 8.757
Common equity and debt							$ 750,000,000
Cash paid to purchase the warrant				79,700,000
Percentage of cumulative preferred stock									9.50%
Liquidation preference per share								$ 1,000,000				$ 1,000
Subsidiary preferred stock redemption date, FTRESC				Mar. 31, 2031
Preferred stock, value, issued			810,974,000		810,974,000					1,000,000
Noncontrolling interest, subsidiary preferred stock		300,000	300,000	300,000	300,000						294,800,000				294,800,000
Net income from continuing operations available to common shareholders		$ 31,300,000	$ 31,200,000	$ 86,900,000	$ 43,600,000