Glenn Freeman: I'm Glenn Freeman for Morningstar. I'm joined today by Natasha Fenech, CEO of SuperConcepts.

Natasha, thanks for joining us today.

Natasha Fenech: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Freeman: Now, first up, we have seen a lot of regulatory changes to SMSFs. Is this something that your clients talk to you about as being a source of frustration?

Fenech: I don't think it's frustration. I think it's more that they are really trying to understand how it impacts their personal situation and what they need to do to stay within the boundaries of the legislation.

So, we are getting a lot of questions from our trustees about what it means for them and how do they need to restructure their assets to enable them to deliver that and that's where advice becomes really important.

Freeman: And what's the number one challenge that's facing Australian SMSF trustees?

Fenech: Trustees these days are really having some challenges in terms of understanding some of the changes that have happened most recently with the super rate changes that have come in, especially in relation to how those changes are impacting their investment decision making.

And so, that's where it becomes really important to have practitioners, either an accountant, or an advisor, or an administrator such as SuperConcepts, really supporting those trustees to enable them to understand the impacts of those regulatory changes to their structures.

Freeman: And Natasha, do you personally run an SMSF? And what is the split between the time spent on running the administration side of it and working on the investments?

Fenech: I personally do have an SMSF that I run with my husband. In terms of the time spent, Investment Trends have a survey and from that survey it would appear that on average about eight hours a month are spent by trustees managing their fund.

Now, three of those eight hours are spent in terms of investing the assets. The remaining five hours are actually spent on either doing administrative work, monitoring their fund, or actually, staying up-to-date in terms of the legislative changes.

And that's where again, I think, if you have the right support, you can cut down a lot of that time spent on administering the fund. Because if you have, for example, a daily administration service, you're actually being provided with up-to-date valuations of your portfolio and that enables you to make much more informed investment decisions about how you structure your assets going forward.

Freeman: And what are some of the costs that people need to be aware of when setting up and maintaining an SMSF?

Fenech: So, you have the administration of the fund, is one cost. Now, what we are seeing is that's coming down through the introduction of technology and the introduction of also scale players such as ourselves. You also have--every fund has to have an audit and that's another requirement which does add a cost to it. Then there is obviously, depending on the investment structures that you have, there's the cost of the particular products that you invest in.

Freeman: And Natasha, just lastly, in your view, are the government changes to SMSF legislation making it more or less appealing to people to set up their own fund?

Fenech: From our perspective, we are seeing that the appeal of SMSF structures is still there in the marketplace. And in fact, what we're seeing is a younger demographic coming into the marketplace.

We are seeing more SMSFs being set up by the age bracket of 45 to 55-year-olds. And why is that the case? We believe a lot of the case is because of the introduction of technology making it easier for people to have these assets, the greater visibility that you get in terms of your SMSF. And one of the biggest reasons why people enter into SMSF is control, the fact that they can invest their assets how they see fit to relate to their investment and risk profile.

Freeman: Thanks for your time today, Natasha.

Fenech: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Freeman: I'm Glenn Freeman for Morningstar. Thanks for watching.