Bribery or Cost of Doing Business?

I am a financial advisor looking for more high net worth clients, and this idea struck me:
Pay talent managers/agents to recommend me to their top earning clients. I get a 1% commission of assets under management, so if I were to pay the manager $10,000 for referring me to a person with $1 million to manage, I'd break even the first year, and if I do my job right, I'll turn a huge profit the following years. But the question is; is this considered bribery, or a cost of doing business?

I'm not trying to be rude, but do you really think tossing around $10,000 at a pop will get you more business? It seems to be a great recipe to go broke! Even if the agent gives you a referral, do you really think people are going to fork over $1,000,000 to you without checking references or giving you just a bit to start?

Why not start advising the agents themselves? Do an honest job for them and they'll likely give you the referrals for nothing...