There aren't many shares on the ASX that you could buy and realistically hold forever. There are lots of industries that are being disrupted, or will be, such as retail.
The following three shares are ones that I think an investor can buy and be very confident holding for several decades:
Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH)
Cochlear is one of the world's leading hearing implant companies.
Sadly, it's fairly common and unavoidable for people to have a hearing disability at birth or pick it up during their lives, no matter how much our society has developed.
Cochlear has developed amazing devices to help people hear, with some of the latest hearing devices able to stream audio such as music straight from a phone to the hearing device.
Its products are invaluable and are only going to get more useful, complex and expensive.
Cochlear is trading at 36x FY18's estimated earnings with a fully franked dividend yield of 1.73%.
Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF)
Rural Funds is Australia's only ASX-listed farm landlord real estate investment trust (REIT).
Farmland has been a very useful economic asset for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and I can't see that changing any time soon.
Rural Funds has a number of stock exchange-listed tenants such as Select Harvests Limited (ASX: SHV) and Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX: TWE).
It owns a variety of farm types including almonds, macadamias, cattle, vineyards, poultry and cotton.
Rural Funds is currently trading with a distribution yield of 4.47%.
InvoCare is Australia's largest funeral operator with a market share of just under a third.
The ageing demographics of Australia mean that the number of deaths is expected to steadily increase for several decades into the future.
Funerals are a very defensive industry because of how consistent its operations are year-to-year.
InvoCare is currently trading at 27x FY18's estimated earnings with a fully franked dividend yield of 2.83%.
Foolish takeaway
I'm confident all three will be long-term market beaters, which is why I'm already a shareholder of InvoCare and Rural Funds.
All three are trading quite expensively at the moment, so it would probably be best to wait for a cheaper entry price.
