FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS (Details 10) (USD $) Share data in Millions, unless otherwise specified			1 Months Ended						9 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Sep. 29, 2012 AIA Group	Mar. 31, 2012 AIA Group	Sep. 30, 2012 AIA Group	Sep. 06, 2012 AIA Group	Mar. 07, 2012 AIA Group	Dec. 31, 2011 AIA Group	Sep. 30, 2012 Fair Value Option	Dec. 31, 2011 Fair Value Option
Fair Value, Balance Sheet Grouping, Financial Statement Captions
Fair value of retained interest					$ 6,100,000,000			$ 12,400,000,000
Mortgage and other loans receivable, Fair Value	130,000,000	107,000,000							130,000,000	107,000,000
Mortgage and other loans receivable, Outstanding Principal Amount									140,000,000	150,000,000
Mortgage and other loans receivable, Difference									(10,000,000)	(43,000,000)
Long-term debt, Fair Value	8,835,000,000	10,766,000,000							8,835,000,000	10,766,000,000
Long-term debt, Outstanding Principal Amount									6,483,000,000	8,624,000,000
Long-term debt, Difference									2,352,000,000	2,142,000,000
Disclosure level, past due mortgage or other loans receivable for which the fair value option was elected, number of days past due threshold									90 days	90 days
Number of shares of AIA sold			600	1,720
Ownership percentage held	15.90%					14.00%	33.00%
Proceeds received by the Department of the Treasury from the sale of AIG common stock			$ 2,000,000,000	$ 6,000,000,000