I think you are referring to selecting which assets are the ones that are transferred back to the TIRA. Yes, it should be your choice which assets you want transfered back. In many cases you will have already sold the assets that were originally converted. The assets you select to stay in the Roth should be the ones that you expect to preform better in the future, and the others would be candidates to recharacterize back. Since IRA custodians handle these differently, it is a good idea to be specific which assets you want to be transferred. If you are not sure of the relative amounts, you should be able to use an example such as: “for the recharacterization first transfer mutual fund A, and if more is needed use Stock B, then Bond C etc”. This communicates the order in which you want the assets moved, and is comprehensive enough so that it should not generate further discussions or questions.

When you convert into an existing Roth account, the earnings calculation for recharacterization must include the investment experience of all assets in that account, not just the converted assets. When the converted assets perform worse than the overall account, that will automatically result in having to recharacterize some of the assets in addition to those converted.

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