I tried using the Information Management Policy and Expiration Policy (on CA) method laid out in http://blogs.askcts.com/2013/05/14/creating-a-timed-workflow-in-sharepoint-2010/, but it has not worked for me yet. I had the Information Management Policy sent to run daily at 2:00 AM and then the Expiration Policy to run at 2:15 AM. I then created a worfklow that looks to see if a particular date field equals today, then send me an e-mail. It didn't work. I made adjustments and will see tomorrow if I get the expected results.
In the meantime, I tried another approach, but couldn't get the workflow to revise a counter field I in my form using a workflow.
So, seeing the pieces I could play with, I created a workflow that looks for a certain State (in my form), has it send an e-mail to me announcing the clock is ticking, find the difference between today and my expiration date field and store that as a variable (in number of days), pause the workflow for the number of days using the variable, and then have it e-mail me after the pause. It worked, but I'm wondering if having a workflow pause for possibly 11 months is a good idea.
The other thing is..."is there an easier way?" I just want to send an e-mail when a certain date (field) is reached - automatically. Ideas???