Variable Interest Entities	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011
Schedule Of Variable Interest Entities [Abstract]
Variable interest entities	Note 13 – Variable Interest Entities When the Company becomes involved with a variable interest entity and when the nature of the Company's involvement with the entity changes, in order to determine if the Company is the primary beneficiary and must consolidate the entity, it evaluates: the structure and purpose of the entity; the risks and rewards created by and shared through the entity; and the entity's participants' ability to direct its activities, receive its benefits and absorb its losses. Participants include the entity's sponsors, equity holders, guarantors, creditors and servicers. In the normal course of its investing activities, the Company makes passive investments in securities that are issued by variable interest entities for which the Company is not the sponsor or manager. These investments are predominantly asset-backed securities primarily collateralized by foreign bank obligations or mortgage-backed securities. The asset-backed securities largely represent fixed-rate debt securities issued by trusts that hold perpetual floating-rate subordinated notes issued by foreign banks. The mortgage-backed securities represent senior interests in pools of commercial or residential mortgages created and held by special-purpose entities to provide investors with diversified exposure to these assets. The Company owns senior securities issued by several entities and receives fixed-rate cash flows from the underlying assets in the pools. The Company is not the primary beneficiary and does not consolidate any of these entities because either: it had no power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the entities' economic performance; or it had neither the right to receive benefits nor the obligation to absorb losses that could be significant to these variable interest entities. The Company has not provided, and does not intend to provide, financial support to these entities. The Company performs ongoing qualitative analyses of its involvement with these variable interest entities to determine if consolidation is required. The Company's maximum potential exposure to loss related to these entities is limited to the carrying amount of its investment reported in fixed maturities and equity securities, and its aggregate ownership interest is insignificant relative to the total principal amount issued by these entities.

Tabular disclosure of the significant judgments and assumptions made in determining whether a variable interest (as defined) held by the entity requires the variable interest entity (VIE) (as defined) to be consolidated and (or) disclose information about its involvement with the VIE, individually or in aggregate (as applicable); the nature of restrictions, if any, on the consolidated VIE's assets and on the settlement of its liabilities reported by an entity in its statement of financial position, including the carrying amounts of such assets and liabilities; the nature of, and changes in, the risks associated with involvement in the VIE; how involvement with the VIE affects the entity's financial position, financial performance, and cash flows; the lack of recourse if creditors (or beneficial interest holders) of the consolidated VIE have no recourse to the general credit of the primary beneficiary (if applicable); the terms of arrangements, giving consideration to both explicit arrangements and implicit variable interests, if any, that could require the entity to provide financial support to the VIE, including events or circumstances that could expose the entity to a loss; the methodology used by the entity for determining whether or not it is the primary beneficiary of the variable interest entity; the significant factors considered and judgments made in determining that the power to direct the activities of a VIE that most significantly impact the VIE's economic performance are shared (as defined); the carrying amounts and classification of assets and liabilities of the VIE included in the statement of financial position; the entity's maximum exposure to loss, if any, as a result of its involvement with the VIE, including how the maximum exposure is determined and significant sources of the entity's exposure to the VIE; a comparison of the carrying amounts of the assets and liabilities and the entity's maximum exposure to loss; information about any liquidity arrangements, guarantees, and (or) other commitments by third parties that may affect the fair value or risk of the entity's variable interest in the VIE; whether or not the entity has provided financial support or other support (explicitly or implicitly) to the VIE that it was not previously contractually required to provide or whether the entity intends to provide that support, including the type and amount of the support and the primary reasons for providing the support; and supplemental information the entity determines necessary to provide.

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+ Details