A lot of industries come under pressure in a recession because their main customer base doesn't have much discretionary money to spend.
However, wealthy retirees are much more likely to maintain wealth throughout a downturn and keeping spending, particularly on essentials.
Below are shares that should do better than average whilst growing with the ageing demographic tailwinds:
Class Ltd (ASX: CL1)
Class provides cloud accounting software for self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) administrators.
People are usually quite wealthy if they have a SMSF. The reports that Class helps create are essential and mandatory annual reports. If the SMSF trustee wants to keep the SMSF open then they need to keep using Class (or a competitor).
The retention rate of above 99% in recent years and an expected flood of change by SMSFs to cloud accounting should see Class grow significantly over the next few years.
Some of this growth is reflected in the share price as it's currently trading at 58x FY16's earnings with a fully franked dividend yield of 1.34%.
Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC)
Ramsay is one of the largest private hospital operators in the world.
Health is the most important thing to a lot of people, which is why patients are willing to spend whatever it takes to stay healthy and alive. If patients are wealthy then they're willing to spend a bit more for extra comfort and perhaps a better health outcome.
Ramsay is a very defensive business and should be able to grow earnings strongly over the coming decades as more people need to visit hospitals.
It's currently trading at 28x FY17's estimated earnings with a fully franked dividend yield of 1.72%.
Japara Healthcare Ltd (ASX: JHC)
Japara is one of the largest aged care providers in Australia. Its facilities are aimed at residents requiring additional care or wanting a more upmarket offering.
Residents are very unlikely to want to move to a different facility because of what's happening in the economic world. This gives Japara security in the event that there is a downturn.
Japara is currently trading at 18x FY16's earnings with a fully franked dividend yield of 5.33%.
Foolish takeaway
I think all three businesses should be good options for investors over the next decade. Japara clearly offers the best dividend yield, but I think Ramsay is the better growth option at the current price.
