Jonathan Cooke is a founder member of STEP and served on Council from the foundation of the Society until 2003. At different times during that period he held various executive offices and for four years he was Chairman of the STEP Sussex Branch. Currently he serves on the England & Wales Regional Committee, the Probate and Estates Sub-Committee and the Disciplinary Panel. Jonathan is the author of the STEP publication “Guidelines for the Preparation of Trust & Estate Accounts in England & Wales” and a contributor to Tottels’ “Revenue Law - Principles and Practice”. He also wrote the first edition of the Trust and Estate Accounting study manual for the STEP England & Wales Diploma and is a tutor for the Trust and Estate Accounting module.

Jonathan has specialised in trust and estate work for the whole of his working life, having started his career in the executor and trustee department of a major bank where he qualified in 1975 as an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (Trustee Diploma). Since then he has worked in the offices of both solicitors and chartered accountants and has gained considerable experience of the different approaches of the professions to this work. Currently he is a partner in Humphrey & Co, chartered accountants, with offices in Eastbourne and Brighton.