Financial Statements (Policies)	3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2023
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Basis of Presentation and Consolidation [Policy Text Block]	The consolidated financial statements include the accounts and operations of Citizens, Inc. ("Citizens" or the "Company"), a Colorado corporation, and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, CICA Life Insurance Company of America ("CICA"), CICA Life Ltd. ("CICA International"), CICA Life A.I., a Puerto Rico company ("CICA PR"), Citizens National Life Insurance Company ("CNLIC"), Security Plan Life Insurance Company ("SPLIC"), Security Plan Fire Insurance Company ("SPFIC"), Magnolia Guaranty Life Insurance Company ("MGLIC"), Computing Technology, Inc. ("CTI"), and Nexo Global Services, LLC ("Nexo"). All significant inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated. Citizens and its wholly-owned subsidiaries are collectively referred to as the "Company", "it", "we", "us" or "our". The consolidated balance sheet as of March 31, 2023, the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) and stockholders' equity (deficit) for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022 and the consolidated statements of cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022 have been prepared by the Company without audit and are not subject to audit. In the opinion of management, all normal and recurring adjustments to present fairly the financial position, results of operations, and changes in cash flows at March 31, 2023 and for comparative periods have been made. The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("U.S. GAAP") for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Accordingly, the consolidated financial statements do not include all the information and footnotes required for complete financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 ("Form 10-K"). Operating results for the interim periods disclosed herein are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for a full year or any future period. Our Life Insurance segment operates through CICA International, CICA PR, CICA and CNLIC. Until December 31, 2022, our international life insurance business, operated through CICA International. Beginning January 1, 2023, all new international policies are issued by CICA PR. These companies provide U.S. dollar-denominated endowment contracts internationally, which are principally accumulation contracts that incorporate an element of life insurance protection and ordinary whole life insurance in U.S. dollar-denominated amounts sold to non-U.S. residents. These contracts are designed to provide a fixed amount of insurance coverage over the life of the insured and may utilize rider benefits to provide additional increasing or decreasing coverage and annuity benefits to enhance accumulations. Our domestic life insurance business operates through CICA and CNLIC. CICA issues ordinary whole life, credit life and disability policies and CNLIC issues ordinary whole life and critical illness policies mainly in Texas and Florida. Both companies service whole life and accident and health policies primarily in the Southern U.S., Midwest and Mountain West. Our Home Service Insurance segment operates through our subsidiaries SPLIC, MGLIC and SPFIC, and focuses on the life insurance needs of the middle- and lower-income markets, primarily in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. Our products in this segment consist primarily of small face amount ordinary whole life, industrial life and pre-need policies, which are designed to fund final expenses for the insured, primarily consisting of funeral and burial costs as well as critical illness and property insurance policies, which cover dwelling and contents. CTI provides data processing systems and services to the Company.
Use of Estimates, Policy [Policy Text Block]	USE OF ESTIMATES The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Significant estimates include those used in the evaluation of credit allowances on fixed maturity securities, actuarially determined assets and liabilities and assumptions and valuation allowance on deferred tax assets. Certain of these estimates are particularly sensitive to market conditions, and deterioration and/or volatility in the worldwide debt or equity markets could have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements.
Deferred Policy Acquisition Costs, Policy	DEFERRED POLICY ACQUISITION COSTS Deferred policy acquisition costs (“DAC”) are costs that are incremental and directly related to the successful acquisition of new or renewal insurance contracts. Such costs include the incremental direct costs of contract acquisition, such as sales commissions; the portion of employees’ total compensation and payroll-related fringe benefits related directly to time spent performing acquisition activities, such as underwriting, issuing, and processing policies for contracts that have actually been acquired; and other costs related directly to acquisition activities that would not have been incurred if the contract had not been acquired. Contracts are grouped by contract type and issue year into cohorts consistent with the grouping used in estimating the associated liability. DAC is amortized on a constant level basis for the grouped contracts over the expected term of the related contracts to approximate straight-line amortization. For the Life Insurance Segment, the constant level basis used is policy count in force. For the Home Service Insurance Segment, the constant level basis used is face amount in force. The constant level bases used for amortization are projected using mortality and lapse assumptions that are based on the Company’s experience, industry data, and other factors at the end of each reporting period and are consistent with those used for the liability for future policy benefit life reserves. Annually, the Company completes experience studies with respect to mortality and lapse. If those assumptions are updated, the DAC amortization basis is recalculated and the effect of the assumption change will be reflected in the cohort level amortization in future periods. Amortization of DAC is included in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income or loss. The DAC balance on the consolidated balance sheet is reduced for actual experience in excess of expected experience. Changes in future estimates are recognized prospectively over the remaining expected contract term. COST OF INSURANCE ACQUIRED The Company recognizes an intangible asset that arises in the application of GAAP purchase accounting as the difference between the reported value and the fair value of insurance contract liabilities, or comparable amounts determined in purchased insurance business combinations. This intangible asset is referred to as the Cost of Insurance Acquired (“COIA”), which is amortized on a basis consistent with DAC, such that it is amortized in proportion to policies in force for the Life Insurance Segment and face amount in force for the Home Service Insurance Segment to approximate straight-line amortization.
Liability for Future Policy Benefit	FUTURE POLICY BENEFITS AND EXPENSES As premium revenue is recognized, a liability for future policy benefits, which is the present value of estimated future policy benefits to be paid to or on behalf of policyholders less the present value of estimated future net premiums to be collected from policyholders, is accrued. The liability is estimated using current assumptions that include discount rate, mortality and lapses. These current assumptions are based on judgements that consider the Company’s historical experience, industry data, and other factors. For traditional and limited-payment contracts, contracts are grouped into cohorts by contract type and issue year. Our reporting cohorts are (i) Permanent, which summarizes insurance policies with premiums payable over the lifetime of the policy, and (ii) Permanent Limited Pay, which summarizes insurance policies with premiums payable for a limited time after which the policy is fully paid up. Both reporting cohorts include whole life and endowment policies. The liability is adjusted for differences between actual and expected experience. The Company reviews its historical cash flow assumptions quarterly and in the third quarter of the year, the Company reviews its future cash flow assumptions. The net premium ratio used to calculate the liability is updated each quarter based on the current period's actual experience relative to expected experience. The revised net premium ratio is used to derive an updated liability for future policy benefits as of the beginning of the current reporting period, discounted at the locked-in discount rate. This amount is then compared to the carrying amount of the liability as of that same date, before the updating of cash flow assumptions, to determine the current period change in liability estimate. The current period change in the liability is the policyholder liability remeasurement gain or loss and is presented as a separate component of total insurance benefits paid or provided in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income or loss. In subsequent periods, the revised net premiums are used to measure the liability for future policy benefits, subject to future revisions. For traditional and limited-payment contracts, the current discount rate assumption is a yield curve that equals the yield of an upper-medium grade fixed income instrument, based on an A-quality corporate bonds. The Company selects fixed-income instruments that have been A rated by one of the major credit rating agencies, such as Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, or Fitch. The current discount rate assumption is updated quarterly and used to remeasure the liability at the reporting date, with the resulting change reflected in other comprehensive income. For liability cash flows that are projected beyond the duration of market-observable A credit-rated fixed-income instruments, the Company uses the last market-observable yield level and uses linear interpolation to determine yield assumptions for durations that do not have market observable yields. The locked-in discount rate for policies issued prior to transition equals the rate set at contract issuance. For current year issues, the locked-in discount rate is the average of the current year quarterly discount rates and will change throughout the year as new discount rates are calculated, with the change reflected in net income. DEFERRED PROFIT LIABILITY For limited-payment products, gross premiums received in excess of net premiums are deferred at initial recognition as a deferred profit liability (“DPL”). Gross premiums are measured using assumptions consistent with those used in the measurement of the liability for future policy benefit life reserves, including discount rate, mortality and lapses. The DPL is amortized and recognized in net income within the increase in future policy benefit reserves. The amortization basis for the DPL is the present value of insurance in force for life insurance contracts. Interest is accreted on the balance of the DPL using the locked-in discount rate. The Company reviews and updates its estimates of cash flows for the DPL at the same time as the estimates of cash flows for the liability for future policy benefit life reserves. The DPL is updated each quarter based on the current period's actual experience relative to expected experience with the changes recorded within the increase in future policy benefit reserves in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income or loss. On the consolidated balance sheets, DPL is recorded as a component of the liability for future policy benefits.

Financial Statements (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2023

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation and Consolidation [Policy Text Block]

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts and operations of Citizens, Inc. ("Citizens" or the "Company"), a Colorado corporation, and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, CICA Life Insurance Company of America ("CICA"), CICA Life Ltd. ("CICA International"), CICA Life A.I., a Puerto Rico company ("CICA PR"), Citizens National Life Insurance Company ("CNLIC"), Security Plan Life Insurance Company ("SPLIC"), Security Plan Fire Insurance Company ("SPFIC"), Magnolia Guaranty Life Insurance Company ("MGLIC"), Computing Technology, Inc. ("CTI"), and Nexo Global Services, LLC ("Nexo"). All significant inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated. Citizens and its wholly-owned subsidiaries are collectively referred to as the "Company", "it", "we", "us" or "our".

The consolidated balance sheet as of March 31, 2023, the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) and stockholders' equity (deficit) for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022 and the consolidated statements of cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022 have been prepared by the Company without audit and are not subject to audit. In the opinion of management, all normal and recurring adjustments to present fairly the financial position, results of operations, and changes in cash flows at March 31, 2023 and for comparative periods have been made. The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("U.S. GAAP") for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Accordingly, the consolidated financial statements do not include all the information and footnotes required for complete financial statements and should be read in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 ("Form 10-K"). Operating results for the interim periods disclosed herein are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for a full year or any future period.

Our Life Insurance segment operates through CICA International, CICA PR, CICA and CNLIC. Until December 31, 2022, our international life insurance business, operated through CICA International. Beginning January 1, 2023, all new international policies are issued by CICA PR. These companies provide U.S. dollar-denominated endowment contracts internationally, which are principally accumulation contracts that incorporate an element of life insurance protection and ordinary whole life insurance in U.S. dollar-denominated amounts sold to non-U.S. residents. These contracts are designed to provide a fixed amount of insurance coverage over the life of the insured and may utilize rider benefits to provide additional increasing or decreasing coverage and annuity benefits to enhance accumulations. Our domestic life insurance business operates through CICA and CNLIC. CICA issues ordinary whole life, credit life and disability policies and CNLIC issues ordinary whole life and critical illness policies mainly in Texas and Florida. Both companies service whole life and accident and health policies primarily in the Southern U.S., Midwest and Mountain West.

Our Home Service Insurance segment operates through our subsidiaries SPLIC, MGLIC and SPFIC, and focuses on the life insurance needs of the middle- and lower-income markets, primarily in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. Our products in this segment consist primarily of small face amount ordinary whole life, industrial life and pre-need policies, which are designed to fund final expenses for the insured, primarily consisting of funeral and burial costs as well as critical illness and property insurance policies, which cover dwelling and contents.

CTI provides data processing systems and services to the Company.

Use of Estimates, Policy [Policy Text Block]

USE OF ESTIMATES

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and

expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Significant estimates include those used in the evaluation of credit allowances on fixed maturity securities, actuarially determined assets and liabilities and assumptions and valuation allowance on deferred tax assets. Certain of these estimates are particularly sensitive to market conditions, and deterioration and/or volatility in the worldwide debt or equity markets could have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements.

Deferred Policy Acquisition Costs, Policy

DEFERRED POLICY ACQUISITION COSTS

Deferred policy acquisition costs (“DAC”) are costs that are incremental and directly related to the successful acquisition of new or renewal insurance contracts. Such costs include the incremental direct costs of contract acquisition, such as sales commissions; the portion of employees’ total compensation and payroll-related fringe benefits related directly to time spent performing acquisition activities, such as underwriting, issuing, and processing policies for contracts that have actually been acquired; and other costs related directly to acquisition activities that would not have been incurred if the contract had not been acquired.

Contracts are grouped by contract type and issue year into cohorts consistent with the grouping used in estimating the associated liability. DAC is amortized on a constant level basis for the grouped contracts over the expected term of the related contracts to approximate straight-line amortization. For the Life Insurance Segment, the constant level basis used is policy count in force. For the Home Service Insurance Segment, the constant level basis used is face amount in force. The constant level bases used for amortization are projected using mortality and lapse assumptions that are based on the Company’s experience, industry data, and other factors at the end of each reporting period and are consistent with those used for the liability for future policy benefit life reserves. Annually, the Company completes experience studies with respect to mortality and lapse. If those assumptions are updated, the DAC amortization basis is recalculated and the effect of the assumption change will be reflected in the cohort level amortization in future periods.

Amortization of DAC is included in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income or loss. The DAC balance on the consolidated balance sheet is reduced for actual experience in excess of expected experience. Changes in future estimates are recognized prospectively over the remaining expected contract term.

COST OF INSURANCE ACQUIRED

The Company recognizes an intangible asset that arises in the application of GAAP purchase accounting as the difference between the reported value and the fair value of insurance contract liabilities, or comparable amounts determined in purchased insurance business combinations. This intangible asset is referred to as the Cost of Insurance Acquired (“COIA”), which is amortized on a basis consistent with DAC, such that it is amortized in proportion to policies in force for the Life Insurance Segment and face amount in force for the Home Service Insurance Segment to approximate straight-line amortization.

Liability for Future Policy Benefit

FUTURE POLICY BENEFITS AND EXPENSES

As premium revenue is recognized, a liability for future policy benefits, which is the present value of estimated future policy benefits to be paid to or on behalf of policyholders less the present value of estimated future net premiums to be collected from policyholders, is accrued. The liability is estimated using current assumptions that include discount rate, mortality and lapses. These current assumptions are based on judgements that consider the Company’s historical experience, industry data, and other factors.

For traditional and limited-payment contracts, contracts are grouped into cohorts by contract type and issue year. Our reporting cohorts are (i) Permanent, which summarizes insurance policies with premiums payable over the lifetime of the policy, and (ii) Permanent Limited Pay, which summarizes insurance policies with premiums payable for a limited time after which the policy is fully paid up. Both reporting cohorts include whole life and endowment policies. The liability is adjusted for differences between actual and expected experience. The Company reviews its historical cash flow assumptions quarterly and in the third quarter of the year, the Company reviews its future cash flow assumptions. The net premium ratio used to calculate the liability is updated each quarter based on the current period's actual experience relative to expected experience. The revised net premium ratio is used to derive an updated liability for future policy benefits as of the beginning of the current reporting period, discounted at the locked-in discount rate. This amount is then compared to the carrying amount of the liability as of that same date, before the updating of cash flow assumptions, to determine the current period change in liability estimate. The current period change in the liability is the policyholder liability remeasurement gain or loss and is presented as a separate component of total insurance benefits paid or provided in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income or loss. In subsequent periods, the revised net premiums are used to measure the liability for future policy benefits, subject to future revisions.

For traditional and limited-payment contracts, the current discount rate assumption is a yield curve that equals the yield of an upper-medium grade fixed income instrument, based on an A-quality corporate bonds. The Company selects fixed-income instruments that have been A rated by one of the major credit rating agencies, such as Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, or Fitch. The current discount rate assumption is updated quarterly and used to remeasure the liability at the reporting date, with the resulting change reflected in other comprehensive income. For liability cash flows that are projected beyond the duration of market-observable A credit-rated fixed-income instruments, the Company uses the last market-observable yield level and uses linear interpolation to determine yield assumptions for durations that do not have market observable yields. The locked-in discount rate for policies issued prior to transition equals the rate set at contract issuance. For current year issues, the locked-in discount rate is the average of the current year quarterly discount rates and will change throughout the year as new discount rates are calculated, with the change reflected in net income.

DEFERRED PROFIT LIABILITY

For limited-payment products, gross premiums received in excess of net premiums are deferred at initial recognition as a deferred profit liability (“DPL”). Gross premiums are measured using assumptions consistent with those used in the measurement of the liability for future policy benefit life reserves, including discount rate, mortality and lapses.

The DPL is amortized and recognized in net income within the increase in future policy benefit reserves. The amortization basis for the DPL is the present value of insurance in force for life insurance contracts. Interest is accreted on the balance of the DPL using the locked-in discount rate. The Company reviews and updates its estimates of cash flows for the DPL at the same time as the estimates of cash flows for the liability for future policy benefit life reserves. The DPL is updated each quarter based on the current period's actual experience relative to expected experience with the changes recorded within the increase in future policy benefit reserves in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income or loss. On the consolidated balance sheets, DPL is recorded as a component of the liability for future policy benefits.