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TGIF! It's Dan DeFrancesco checking in from NYC. Wishing everyone except the Netherlands a great weekend.

Today we've got stories on what it was like working at Lehman Brothers in the lead up to its fall, incoming layoffs at Morgan Stanley, and the search for a rat hunter in NYC.

But first, can I have my money back, please?

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1. Blackstone would appreciate it if you stopped taking your money out.

There are plenty of things that keep fund managers up at night. The recent market environment doesn't lend itself to a sound sleep.

But the biggest fear for those managing other's money isn't so much the threat of a market crash as it is not having the privilege to do so anymore.

"Redemptions" is a word no fund manager wants to hear. As hard as it might be to navigate a market downturn, it's even harder to do so when people want their money back.

Blackstone, the world's largest private-equity fund, is facing that reality within its Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT), which has seen withdrawal requests exceed its quarterly limit.

BREIT is a $69 billion fund for individual investors that's mostly focused on rental housing and industrial assets in the southern and western US, according to its website. It's also a key part of the firm's push to attract retail investors, Insider's Rebecca Ungarino reports.

And while the fund has largely been a winner for investors since its inception in 2017, and is up 9.3% this year through October, that hasn't stopped some folks from heading for the exits as rates continue to rise and a recession looms.

(A quick hat tip to Credit Suisse research analyst Bill Katz for switching Blackstone to a rare "sell" rating early last week. On Wednesday, Blackstone's stock dropped 7% on the back of the BREIT news.)

Blackstone, for its part, is nonplussed.

"Our business is built on performance, not fund flows, and performance is rock solid," a spokesperson for the firm told Insider.

Blackstone also has some real skin in the game on this one. Bloomberg previously reported that both firm CEO Steve Schwarzman and President Jon Gray have each put $100 million of their own money into BREIT since July.

But as nice as it is to have the bosses' money backing your fund, that's not the target audience. BREIT isn't interested in billionaires like Schwarzman and Gray as much as it is smaller investors. BREIT is one of the most popular funds within the firm's private wealth solutions division.

Blackstone's not alone in its push into retail. Plenty of alternative asset managers have been building out distribution teams for smaller investors, as previously reported by Insider.