Insurance Subsidiary Financial Information and Regulatory Matters - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended							1 Months Ended		12 Months Ended		1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended						1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
	Apr. 02, 2013	Dec. 31, 2013 Y	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2013 Government Guarantee Agreement	Dec. 31, 2012 Government Guarantee Agreement	Dec. 31, 2013 Genworth Financial's Subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2013 Genworth Holdings' Subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2013 Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation (GEMICO)	Dec. 31, 2013 Genworth Holdings	Dec. 31, 2013 U.S. domiciled life insurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2012 U.S. domiciled life insurance subsidiaries	Jan. 31, 2013 Domestic insurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2013 Domestic insurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2012 Domestic insurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2011 Domestic insurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2013 Domestic insurance subsidiaries Extraordinary Dividend	Dec. 31, 2012 Domestic insurance subsidiaries Extraordinary Dividend	Dec. 31, 2011 Domestic insurance subsidiaries Extraordinary Dividend	Jan. 31, 2013 International insurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2013 International insurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2012 International insurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2011 International insurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2013 Domestic subsidiaries Captive life reinsurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2012 Domestic subsidiaries Captive life reinsurance subsidiaries	Dec. 31, 2013 Guarantees provided to third parties	Dec. 31, 2012 Guarantees provided to third parties	Dec. 31, 2013 Rivermont Insurance Company I	Dec. 31, 2012 Rivermont Insurance Company I
Statutory Accounting Practices [Line Items]
Amount of dividend our subsidiaries could pay in 2014 without obtaining regulatory approval		$ 1,000,000,000
Restricted net assets							13,400,000,000	13,900,000,000
Dividends received from insurance subsidiaries		0	0	0										418,000,000	374,000,000	12,000,000	0	175,000,000	0		317,000,000	240,000,000	414,000,000
Maximum potential amount of future obligation																										30,000,000	65,000,000
Limited Guarantee Provided to a subsidiary accounted for as a derivative																												0	1,000,000
Impact of permitted practices on combined statutory capital and surplus											450,000,000	598,000,000
Combined statutory capital and surplus																					8,248,000,000	8,076,000,000		1,101,000,000	1,204,000,000
Consolidated RBC ratio											485.00%	430.00%
Additional statutory reserves		80,000,000
Statutory contingency reserve, annual additions, percentage of earned premiums, minimum		50.00%
Minimum loss ratio requirement to hold statutory contingency reserve		35.00%
Period of time when statutory contingency reserve has to be held, in years		10
Statutory contingency reserve		59,000,000	6,000,000
Maximum risk-to-capital ratio		25
Risk-to-capital ratio		19.3	36.9
Capital contribution	100,000,000								100,000,000											21,000,000
Issued notes, aggregate principal amount										400,000,000
Risk-to-capital ratio requirement, waiver grant date		July 31, 2014
Amount of subsidiary common shares distributed as a capital contribution													230,000,000
Combined statutory net income (loss)																					605,000,000	1,190,000,000	1,194,000,000
Statutory capital and surplus required																					3,435,000,000	3,755,000,000
Increase (decrease) in statutory capital																					359,000,000	338,000,000
Percentage of original principal amount of insured loan to be guaranteed					10.00%
Assets		$ 108,045,000,000	$ 113,312,000,000			$ 985,000,000