There are two ways to manage guardianship in an account. Typically, one or the other method would be used and not both.
Method 1: Relationship is guardian
This method allows us to identify family members as guardians. It allows more than one guardian to be specified. This is the most common usage.
Method 2: Guardian panel
This method allows us to identify an institutional guardian (an agency or a case manager or other non-family third party). It allows one guardian only. This the least common as it is commonly used for 'wards of the state'.
You might be asking yourself wouldn't it be better if IMPOWR managed guardians all in one place? Possibly, but it would certainly add a lot of complexity.
The guardian panel would need to be able to support multiple rows (and logic would be needed to prevent more than one institutional guardian). There would also be a need to replicate relationships in the guardian panel (like what IMPOWR currently has for relationships table) and those relationships would have to be connected so that if a relationship was added or updated in one account, it automatically added or updated in the other. It is a lot of complexity, especially considering the current IMPOWR setup accommodates both family guardians and institutional guardians.