The law specifies only that the SMSF trustee must have a beneficial interest in the asset being held in the holding trust and the right to acquire legal ownership of that asset after making one or more payments. In addition, for the special in-house asset rule to apply, the asset must be the only property of the holding trust.
More complex trusts are unlikely to satisfy the requirement that the SMSF trustee has the necessary interest in a particular asset of the holding trust. For example, a discretionary trust could not be used, nor could the SMSF trustee be one of a number of unit holders in a unit trust.