If the fork is coordinated and done correctly, the coins remain in the blockchain, and presumably the pools who do it right, will then carry their unconfirmed coins forward to eventual confirmation.  That is probably why Ben is admitting that he needs a little help which is a good thing, because doing a fork wrong, causes more problems than it fixes.  So he is being honest and careful from what I can see.

But yes it needs to be done correctly.  I vote for block adjust because that's an easier project and simpler I would guess.  So all they need to do is alter the code, compile and test on the test network, then announce and give the pool time to adjust.  It is a roadmap, but a hopeful one.