Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities (Details) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	Jun. 30, 2013	Dec. 31, 2012
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	$ 29,521	$ 30,670
Policy claims and other policyholders' funds	137	132
Total future policy benefits and policy claims and other policyholders' funds	29,658	30,802
Separate account liabilities
Variable annuity variable sub-accounts	65,479	63,302
VUL insurance variable sub-accounts	6,308	6,051
Other insurance variable sub-accounts	41	42
Total	71,828	69,395
Fixed annuities
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	15,649	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	27	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	4,861	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	84	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	14	103
Other variable annuity guarantees
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	14	13
Total annuities
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	20,652	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	2,800	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	97	59
IUL embedded derivatives
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	76	45
VUL/UL insurance additional liabilities
Future Policy Benefits, Policy Claims and Other Policyholders' Funds and Separate Account Liabilities
Total future policy benefits	281	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	$ 5,615	$ 5,646