(Reuters) - Former Merrill Lynch-owned lender First Republic Bank filed with U.S. regulators on Monday to raise up to $280 million in an initial public offering of common stock.

The bank, which specializes in lending to wealthy families, completed a management buyout in July. Before that it was owned by Merrill Lynch and, more recently, by Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), which bought Merrill at the height of the financial crisis.

The 25-year-old lender, which first went public in 1986, expects the IPO of 11 million shares to be priced at $24 to $27 per share.

Merrill never integrated the San Francisco-based company and it continued to add client assets. It was easy for Bank of America to carve off the unit when it started to sell off assets to boost its capital position.

As of September 30, First Republic had assets of $22.0 billion. Its wealth management assets totaled $17.2 billion.

The July buyout was completed with $1.86 billion of new equity from Colony Financial, a real estate finance and investment company, and investment firm General Atlantic.

In an interview with Reuters in July, First Republic Chief Executive Jim Herbert said the bank was gearing up to make acquisitions, expand its branch network and recruit bankers and money managers.

The company intends to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "FRC."

BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan will be joint book-running managers for the IPO, the company said.

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