"You're going to die tomorrow (sorry!) and your spouse knows nothing about investing."

It's a great question because I worry about it all the time. Of course, I hope it's not anytime soon :-). I know you said Berkshire can't be a part of it but I have to state it would! So let's change it to what other equities would I include...

Google- to me it's that moatiest of all mag 7/ large cap/mega tech companies. Between search, AI and big media (you tube) it will be the most difficult company to compete with. Those three already make up a large part of it's profits and it should be added they are pretty good with their moon shots too. I would also add it's not insanely valued although the recent runup took away some of that attractiveness.

Philip Morris International- pure dividend play here in an industry I think where they have a great moat. They are currently dominating the smokeless space and while there's always regulatory risk it's highly likely the world is going to kick nicotine in our lifetime. Yeah I know, this goes in contradiction to my view Berkshire probably shouldn't have a dividend but that doesn't mean I don't want safe paying dividend elsewhere. As for my wife, I would like the fact she would just get the dividend and would not have to worry about selling shares.

Chevron- Oil is finite. They are my favourite in this category. Again, she could collect dividends without having to think about much and hopefully ride out the down cycles.