A configurable user-interface component management system and method are provided where frame containers contain a number of child components and user-interface components. The frame containers and their children are arranged in a specific hierarchy that determine their on-screen appearance. The hierarchy is a result of the software architecture of the software objects corresponding to the visual on-screen objects. The user-interface components in each visual component are configured based on certain, predetermined policies. The method of managing the frame containers and their children includes waiting for an event that affects a frame and then responding by creating a frame, destroying a frame, changing a hierarchy order, moving a frame from one hierarchy to another, or sizing a frame, after which the appropriate policies are removed and applied as needed, affected hierarchies reconfigured and then saved.