Is an escheated estate treated differently from a company's assets forfeited to the Crown in Ontario?

Yes - though both end up with the Ontario Crown, they arise from different situations and are handled somewhat differently in practice. An estate escheats under the Escheats Act, 2015 when a person dies without a will and without anyone entitled to inherit under the SLRA's intestacy rules - the property had a rightful owner, the deceased, but no living person is left to inherit it. Corporate forfeiture, by contrast, typically arises when a company is dissolved, for example for failing to file required corporate returns, and still held property at the time; that property can then vest in the Crown because the corporate owner itself has ceased to exist.

Because the underlying reason is different, a missing human heir versus a dissolved corporate owner, the practical path back can differ too. For an estate, a later-discovered heir may be able to bring forward genealogical proof of their family relationship. For a dissolved corporation's forfeited assets, revival of the corporation or a different statutory process may be the relevant route instead.

If you're dealing with either situation, it's worth confirming early on which framework actually applies, since the evidence and process needed to make a claim are not interchangeable.