I hope your brain will survive! Would be such a shame to lose it. Question I just came up with: is there a limit to how long a bank will keep your money? I wonder, can I just not use my account for 10 years and it'll still be there, or is there a sign of life necessary from the customer?
Nope! There's this thing called "escheatment." If your account is left dormant or inactive for a long enough period of time, the bank will begin a process of escheatment that will return all of the money in your account(s) to the state. The period of time varies from state to state but is usually 3 to 5 years. The bank IS obligated to inform you that your property is going to be escheated before they actually escheat it. They only have to make a good faith effort, though - so if they don't have an address on file or you're hard to find, you might not hear about it. This also applies to property, like stuff in safe deposit boxes, by the way. Usually if you at least call into your bank once a year or two, or perform any transaction, even if just one a year, your account will stay active and you won't have to worry about it! After the property is escheated an individual can submit a claim to the state for the property, but I'm not sure what happens after that.