RAC- Tax discussions, page-191

For most people owning small amounts of shares in their own name is not a problem as they dont make enough monies to warrant structuring.
As a general rule superannauation is highly efficient from a tax perspective as its tax rates are either 15%, 10% (on Discounted Capital Gains), 0% in Pension phase.
Companies pay tax on profits at 30% (Small Business Entity 26.5%) however it can store tax paid as franking credits to be distributed to shareholders at a later time.
Family Trusts as a general rule pay no tax as they distribute all the profits to beneficiaries who pay tax on the distrbution at their marginal tax rates.

Superannuation is best for tax purposes if you are close to retirement or Retired.
Family Trust is best if you have enough tax benificiaries to distribute profit to and still need access to the monies (before preservation age which is generally 60).
The problem for most people is they start the investment journey as a bit of a punt which means they dont want to pay for advice or setup a structure because they dont know how its going to turn out. Professionals / long term investors generally setup the structures first with the end in mind.

An SMSF v Retail v Industry fund for example. They all have the same rules (as they are all governed by the same Superannuation Act) however Retail and Industry funds place rules on various investment activities / investment choices as they are the Trustee's of the Super fund and have to act prudently for the masses (as they are open to the public). Often these rules limit the professional investor from doing what they want to do. For example they limit the amount of RAC you can hold (as a percentage of your balance) and for many you cannot even purchase a companies share that is outside of the ASX300. SMSF's are only restricted by the Investment Strategy and you can generally hold most asset classes in any amount your fund Investment Strategy states. SMSF's also seperate the Strategy lay of superannuation from the Investment layer. So you can overlay strategies such as conversions from Accumulation to pensions seemlessly. For many I think the self directed type options in Industry funds are sufficient (even though they have limitations).

A good book on family trusts is "Family Trusts" - Renton / Caldwell - A plain english guide for Australian Families

I would seek out an Accountant that is licensed to provide advice on SMSF's as well as Wealth structuring (it is rare to find a financial advisor that has these skills).

dislaimer I am both an accountant and financial advisor and the above is not advice or a recommendation. You should seek the advice of a professional advisor and obtain advice specific to your situaiton.