I occasionally re-read one of my favorite books, Robert Ruark’s The Old Man’s Boy Grows Older. In this classic sequel to The Old Man and the Boy, Ruark reminisces about hunting and fishing with his grandfather in Brunswick County, North Carolina in the early 1900s. He shares with his readers many of the lessons he learned from the Old Man. One Chapter was devoted to an examination of the month of August. Ruark wrote that by August he was tired of mosquitoes, crowded beaches, and hot asphalt. But he compared August to Christmas Eve. August held the “promise of autumn” and the “breathless excitement of what is just around the corner.” Even if the fall and winter didn’t work out as expected, at least he experienced the anticipation of what was to come. August is for planning. For the Boy, it was for getting his fishing tackle organized and cleaning his guns. For you it may mean the same thing. But it also may mean reviewing your beneficiary designations or making an appointment with your lawyer to review your estate plan. A lot of people choose to live their lives as if September will never come. If you don’t prepare, you may be too late. When you are served with a lawsuit, it’s too late to put your farm in that LLC you’ve been talking about forming. When your cognitive abilities are significantly altered by dementia, it’s too late to prepare a power of attorney or Revocable Trust. When you are killed in car wreck it is too late to buy that million-dollar life insurance policy you have been thinking about or form a Trust to protect your daughter’s inheritance from her fiancée. Life is better when we have the promise of autumn. You owe it to yourself and your family to follow through.