Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities (Details) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	Mar. 31, 2013	Dec. 31, 2012
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	$ 29,979	$ 30,670
Policy claims and other policyholders' funds	145	132
Total future policy benefits and policy claims and other policyholders' funds	30,124	30,802
Separate account liabilities
Variable annuity variable sub-accounts	66,121	63,302
VUL insurance variable sub-accounts	6,368	6,051
Other insurance variable sub-accounts	43	42
Total	72,532	69,395
Fixed annuities
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	15,905	16,075
Equity indexed annuity ("EIA") accumulated host values
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	29	31
EIA embedded derivatives
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	3	2
Variable annuity fixed sub-accounts
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	4,832	4,843
Variable annuity guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits ("GMWB")
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	319	799
Variable annuity guaranteed minimum accumulation benefits ("GMAB")
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	23	103
Other variable annuity guarantees
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	13	13
Total annuities
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	21,124	21,866
Variable universal life ("VUL")/universal life ("UL") insurance
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	2,767	2,760
Indexed universal life ("IUL") accumulated host values
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	74	59
IUL embedded derivatives
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	61	45
VUL/UL insurance additional liabilities
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	296	294
Other life, disability income and long term care insurance
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	$ 5,657	$ 5,646