I don't believe that the plant you have is lunaria. Regardless, planting it in the ground would probably be a decent first step, once you've figured out what it is enough to know if it needs sun or shade.

Its not too late to plant it in the ground? I'm a little apprehensive because the last few things I put in the ground this late haven't done well.
The tag it came with from the swap said "Money plant" and the leaves and everything looked identical to what I had... until leaves started dying off :(

It's never too late to plant in the ground, unless the ground is frozen.

The flowers do not look like lunaria to me, but they're hard to get a good look at from your photo.

I have a lot of Lunaria in my garden and it doesn't look like that in bloom or after bloom. You might want to google images of Lunaria and compare.

That particular plant, regardless of what it is, has lost a lot of foliage, but it could still come back for you next year. Putting it in the ground is the best thing you can do for it at this point. Trying to take care of it in a pot all season has the risk of forgetting to water it or overwatering it and you could lose it. It's better off in the ground.

When I plant new plants, I baby them for a week. Water well, at the time of planting and give them shade until they have a chance to set in a little. I will put a lawn chair between the plant and the sun, or put an upside down milk crate over it for a week.

It would be difficult to identify the plant in that condition, so you might want to plant it in an out of the way spot that is part sun until you figure out what it is and can put it in the right place.

Could it be a Money Tree plant or Pachira aquatica? Google results only, sorry no info, I was just curious. See what you think, best wishes.

Disregard jade, which is also called Money Tree according to search results. Googled around then googled "picture Money Tree plant flower"

Money Tree as housewarming present, scroll up to top of page. Brings wealth and prosperity in new home!

Thanks for all the info/help, everyone. I am going to plant it in the next few days and see what it does. Up until it lost all the leaves it looked like a "money plant" in one lady's yard. They said it got the flat silvery coin-like seed pods. Maybe if it didn't look like a stick in a pot of dirt, it'd be easier to identify hahaha! I'll re-post if I get any success :)

THANKS AGAIN!!!!

It doesn't look like Lunaria to me either. But it could be because it is shriveled up. I have tons of it. It reseeds VERY prolifically. Started out by breaking up a few "silver dollars" and scattering a few seeds in one of the woodland beds. That resulted in a few plants, and then those few increased rapidly.

This year I have taken to pulling up most of the plants before they go to seed so that it will only make a few hundred seedlings instead of a few thousand! Haha

Very pretty in the Spring.

I think it might be Lobelia siphilitica.

Not knowing where you are, or what zone, makes it more of a mystery. If you're interested in doing so, you can find your zone here. By including it in your profile info, it will show up next to your name when you post. It's also helpful to include your 2-letter state abbreviation since the same zone can be quite different in different states.