This I believe was a typical residential service where the new panel was going to be in a new location. The contractor wanted to know if could use the existing neutral terminal and run one larger conductor from the old panel (which is now going to be gutted and used as a j-box) to the new panel, while carrying the hots for each of the existing circuits back to the new panel using separate conductors.
FYI-conduit is required in our municipality so separate cable runs are not a concern.
