Upgrading from Parent theme to having a Child theme

Hi,

I know you are in the midst of fixing 2.6 with 2.6.1 so I am holding off on the update.

But, I have a new client using your theme v 2.1 and I need to update to 2.6.1 and then add the Child theme and activate it.

My question is, will I lose all the settings in the Parent theme when I activate the Child theme?
If so, is there a way to export those settings and then import them into the Child?

Thanks

Mitch