Acquisition (Narrative) (Details) - Liberty Transaction [Member] $ in Millions	9 Months Ended	17 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2019	Sep. 30, 2019 USD ($)
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Acquisition agreement date	May 01, 2018
Capital stock acquired, percent	100.00%	100.00%
Provisional assets		$ (5)
Provisional liabilities		23
Provisional goodwill		$ 28

Business Combination, Provisional Information, Initial Accounting Incomplete, Adjustment, Goodwill

No definition available.

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Namespace Prefix:	lnc_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Date when the business acquisition agreement was executed, in CCYY-MM-DD format.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:dateItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Percentage of voting equity interests acquired at the acquisition date in the business combination.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 805
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 2
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=79982066&loc=d3e1392-128463

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

This element represents the amount of any measurement period adjustment (as defined) realized during the reporting period to financial assets acquired in connection with a business combination for which the initial accounting was incomplete.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 805
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 4A
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=116869197&loc=SL65897772-128472

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

This element represents the amount of any measurement period adjustment (as defined) realized during the reporting period to financial liabilities assumed in connection with a business combination for which the initial accounting was incomplete.

+ References

+ Details

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Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Details

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Period Type: